The Milton Township Board of Trustees voted last week to resume its weather siren project after placing it on hold during the construction of the new township hall. The project calls for 10 sirens to be installed to cover the entire township.

One siren has already been installed on township property on the corner of Bertrand and Gumwood roads.

“We have a lot of people that work in ag space, so alerting them in an emergency event such as a storm with the potential for a tornado is important,” said Robert Benjamin, township supervisor. “We want to give increased awareness to the residents.”

Another siren will be installed on the Southwestern Michigan

College Niles campus, located in Milton Township within the next two months. Milton Township will be installing one to three sirens a year as future budget allows until all remaining sirens have been installed. Milton Township is installing Federal Signal 2001 AC/DC sirens with digital two-way status monitoring at a cost of $19,900 each.

“Like for most townships in the state it is expensive to put in eight or 10 at one time, so we are spreading it out,” Benjamin said.

A map showing proposed locations of the Milton Township’s future weather sirens can be found at miltontwp.org or by visiting the Milton Township Hall. Future locations are approximate and may be moved to accommodate residents’ needs and power requirements.

Milton Township is coordinating with Niles Charter Township, the City of Niles, and Southwestern Michigan College for a single alert system. If all municipalities agree, then the City of Niles will be setting off the weather sirens for Milton Township and the City of Niles as well as any future sirens that Niles Charter Township may install.

“It is a partnership between all four entities,” Benjamin said.

Milton Township currently has its sirens set off by Cass County’s 911 dispatch center.

Benjamin said weather patterns for the Niles area do not always reflect the weather patterns for the rest of Cass County, which is one of the reasons for the partnering effort of the municipalities.