Milton to Get Its Own Tornado Sirens

Milton will be getting its own tornado sirens with the approval of a $216,329 bid by City Council on Monday night.

Matt Marietta, the city's fire marshal and emergency manager, told the council that the city is missing a critical piece of its warning system for residents. The Code Red program has approximately 10,000 subscribers for the city of 33,000 people. But it doesn't have any tornado sirens.

Marietta said city residents and business owners often ask him about tornado sirens when they hear sirens set off by neighboring jurisdictions.

The siren systems are very useful for people in outdoor areas such as parks, horse arenas, and in their cars, Marietta said, in addition to the Internet-based “smart systems” such as Code Red.

The towers will be wired to the local electric grid and will have a battery backup. They will be operated

Milton would start out with 10 outdoor sirens. The contract includes installation and five years of routine maintenance on the towers. It will be integrated into the Alpharetta system as a part of Milton's E911 relationship with the neighboring city.

The City Council approved the bid for a contract with Federal Signal Corporation to install the sirens.

The City has identified 10 potential sites for placement of the outdoor warning system siren assembly. The preliminary sites are:

1. Fire Station #43 at 750 Hickory Flat Road, Milton, GA 30004
2. Bell Memorial Park at 15245 Bell Park Road Milton, GA 30004
3. The south east corner of the intersection of Hwy 372 (Birmingham Hwy) and Providence Road. This will soon be reconfigured to contain a traffic circle and the city is acquiring land for that purpose.
4. Fire Station #41 at 12670 Arnold Mill Rd (GA 140) Milton, GA 30075
5. The proposed Fire Headquarters at 13690 Hwy 9 Milton, GA 30004
6. The area of Hwy 140 and Chadwick Farm Blvd
7. The area of Birmingham Rd and Freemanville Road
8. The area of Hopewell Rd and Longstreet Road
9. The area of Redd Rd and Thompson Road
10. The area of Providence Park on Providence Road