After 15 years of service to the city, Goshen’s ailing tornado siren system may soon be replaced and updated.

Problems with the current system, installed in 1994, have slowly been compounding as parts wear, electronics exceed their lifespans and new technology makes them obsolete.

“It was kind of a building up,” Utilities Engineer Dustin Sailor said. “(Fire Chief) Dan Sink had mentioned there had been a problem, and we were figuring out that we had several (sirens) that were not working we were having trouble getting back into service.”

The Goshen Fire Department is responsible for weekly “growl” testing of the system, ensuring all signals trigger the sirens appropriately, as well as two full tests each year. Testing had been the responsibility of an emergency management group, but was transferred to the fire department when that organization went defunct.

“Our issue really is they’re at the end of their life expectancy and the circuit boards are old and we can’t get them anymore,” Chief Sink said.

As failures at particular sirens occurred, Middlebury Electric would test batteries and do minor servicing as per a yearly contract with the fire department, while Emergency Radio Services provided as-needed radio maintenance.

The main issue with the units didn’t have to do with the actual siren heads, but with the cabinets at ground level that contain the batteries and electronics that run the siren. The cabinets themselves are made of steel and have corroded to some extent. A bigger problem lies in the top penetrations into the boxes for cabling, several currently sealed with only electrical tape to keep moisture out.

“You never make top penetrations into an electrical cabinet,” Sailor said. “That’s just a no-no.”

Failures have been becoming more and more common, especially last year, according to Sailor.

Some discussions took place regarding whether or not to retrofit, removing the guts and putting them in new cabinets.

“We made a determination that...we weren’t really going to have the same end secure feeling that we would with a whole new cabinet,” Sailor said. “We were going to have to try to patch in radios and do a lot of what I would call ‘hack work’ to make the system work to try and save a dollar. From a public safety perspective, that just didn’t feel right to me.”

Those radios pose a significant problem to the old system on their own. The current units function on wide-band frequencies. The Federal Communications Commission is phasing out wide-band radios in favor of narrow-band frequencies. Once this occurs, the current radios in the system would become uselessly obsolete.

The engineering department is working on putting the project out to bid, after which they will come back to the City Council for funding.

Replacement, however, isn’t the only goal of the project.

“The city has grown, and we have not put in additional warning sirens,” Sailor said. “So what this plan also calls for is the installation of additional siren heads to provide full coverage.”

That coverage will be aimed at locations along the southern edge of the city, where city limits now extend past the approximately 5,000 foot radius from each siren within which they can be heard. One potential siren location would extend audibility past the location of the new south link road, including the entire Waterford Commons development area. A total of five additional locations are being considered.

Goshen College has also gotten in on the act, offering the use of a small piece of property as a new location for the siren they built their music building directly in front of. Moving the siren will significantly increase its audibility.

As each department moves through the process to bring the project to fruition, Mayor Allan Kauffman has been considering possible funding options. Approximately one year ago, he talked with the council briefly about the need to pay for the new system.

“I suggested that this would be an appropriate expenditure from the rainy day fund, and I did not hear much objection from the council at that point,” he said. “Sometimes when you talk about using rainy day funds they say ‘well, it isn’t raining yet,’ but I think it’s an appropriate use.”

Kauffman also mentioned that he needs to find out as to whether the county has any funds and if they want to participate.

“So whether emergency management has some funds or the county has some funds or the township has some funds and are willing to kick in, those questions are going to be asked,” he said.

Sailor said he would like to have the bids let this year and up for award during the first part of next year, so installation could begin by the spring, if not earlier. He noted that much of the work is not weather dependent, allowing work to begin as soon as proper authorization has been received, and estimated a six- to eight-month period for installation.