By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City Manager Shawna Burkhart reiterated her commitment to funding a system of emergency sirens during a recent city council work session on the city budget for the next fiscal year.
The council work session on the budget was July 15 and was called to allow city staff to review with the council the city’s planned fixed asset purchases and capital improvement projects over the coming year.
After discussing the San Felipe Creek bank stabilization project with city council members, Burkhart turned the discussion toward the emergency siren system.
She told the council, “Moving on to a very relevant topic, is emergency management sirens. We have just recently met with the county and pulled together an asset list, of both the county and the city and given those to our emergency management director and her colleague at the county, and they have all of the necessary information for a major flooding event.”
Burkhart made her comments in the context of deadly flash flooding that occurred over the Fourth of July weekend in communities throughout the Texas Hill Country, in which more than 130 people, including many children, lost their lives. In addition, billions of dollars in property damage was done, and many of the affected communities will take years to recover.
The flooding also echoes a devastating flood of the San Felipe Creek and other drainages in Del Rio in August 1998.
Burkhart told the council, “We’re just making sure we’re prepared, if there is another major flooding event (here), and so, with that said, sirens are very important. Back in 2019, money was set aside. There was $177,500 left in those COs for emergency sirens.”
The city manager later said the council will need to set aside at least twice that amount to fund a siren system for the entire city.
Burkhart also told the council she and her staff have reached out to Texas state legislators, who will be considering tens of millions of dollars in funding for emergency management initiatives across the state when they meet in a special legislative session, which begins in Austin today.
Burkhart said, “We have already approached our state legislators to make sure that our needs are known and that we need approximately $450,000 to $500,000. The quote for 2018 was $388,000 for replacement of our sirens.”
Burkhart said the city will also need to conduct “a propagation study so that we know where to place these new sirens if we are funded.”
She added, “We have asked for funding resources from the state. They are in special session right now, considering these issues, and our ask has been put it, so we are very much in need of additional funding for this emergency management siren program.”
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
