By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members discussed installation of a citywide emergency siren system and other means of notifying citizens about dangerous weather and other threats during their most recent meeting.
The discussion of installing emergency sirens was part of an update of ongoing city projects presented to the council by city staff.
At the start of the discussion, Interim Finance Director Roxy Soto told the council, “Since the last presentation made to the city council, the city’s emergency management coordinator and the city’s grants writer researched potential grants and realized that most of these grants do require an update to the hazard mitigation plan, so this plan was presented to city council on Feb. 24, 2026.
“Since then, (the plan) was submitted to TDEM (Texas Department of Emergency Management) and to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration). We received a letter dated April 15 that the Val Verde County, Texas, Multi-Jurisdiction Hazard Mitigation Plan had been approved, and so with that plan, Michael (Garcia, city grants writer) and Amanda (Aldaco, emergency management director) will continue with their research and continue to apply for potential funding sources for the emergency management sirens,” Soto said.
Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr. said he understood the city had set aside $177,000 for emergency sirens, adding he knew the state has prioritized funding for sirens and other emergency notification systems following last summer’s deadly flash floods in Kerrville. Lopez said he hoped Del Rio could avail itself of some of the state grants being made available to communities.
Soto replied, “Because we were missing the (hazard mitigation) plan, we weren’t able to apply; however, now that we have an approved plan, we will be applying for some of those funding opportunities.”
Lopez asked, “There’s no deadline on it?”
Soto responded, “Yes, typically, all of them do have a deadline. I’m not familiar with the deadline at the moment, but typically all grants, yes, do have a deadline.”
Mayor Al Arreola added Garcia and Aldaco needed the updated hazard mitigation plan before applying for those grants.
Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez asked Interim City Manager Manuel Chavez, “Since you do have the approval letter, and you’ll be able to try and find more grant funds to replace all of them, will we be able to purchase some with the money that we already have available? Or do we have to wait for everything?”
Chavez replied, “As mentioned, we do have some funds set aside. I’m not sure if it’s something where we’ll go out and replace as a system, and, if so, I’m not sure that it could be done in phases, it’s something that we can look into, not to say that we can’t, but again, I would imagine that this would be an upgrade of a system, rather than each individual siren by itself.”
Arreola commented, “And those sirens are pretty old, right?”
“Yes, but I’m not sure how old they are,” Soto replied.
Councilwoman Ernestina “Tina” Martinez asked, “Do we have any of the sirens working at all?”
Aldaco walked to the podium to respond to the question.
Aldaco answered, “Right now, no, none of the sirens work. There was a panel that needed to be tested, and it was fried. We couldn’t even see which sirens would actually work, but going over the condition that they’re in, it’s not possible right now for them to be working. So as they did mention, Michael and I are working on a grant.
“It’s an application we will be going over. It’s called BRIC (Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities), and it essentially is anything with hazard mitigation, so your sirens are included in there, high winds, so there’s a lot of things that Michael and Greg (Velazquez, city public works director) and I are going over to see if we can get more prepared for any disaster, not just flooding or possible tornadoes. So we have a few months, and we are going to be able to send in that application before the deadline,” Aldaco said.
Martinez asked, “If you have an emergency, how are you going to notify people, especially those along the river?”
Aldaco responded, “So, right now, we do Regroup (Mass Notification), and (we) are always pushing out for people to sign up. Essentially, we need the public to help us as well. . . In a perfect world, I would be able to just have everybody’s cell phone attached or landline attached, so that way they get the message right away, but essentially I do need permission from the owners of the phones, whether it be a cell phone or a landline or even an email address, to be able to do that.
“So I do need the public’s help in that aspect, for them to sign up for (alerts) and then stay signed up. A lot of times people get upset because too many alerts are going out, but the way that the system works, it’s only for warnings. Before, (it was set up for) watches and warnings, but the watches, it could possibly happen versus a warning, which means there’s a threat and there’s going to be some kind of flooding or a hailstorm that you do need to be prepared for.
“So now we only get the warnings. But if the National Weather Service updates, that the storm is going to be at 10:15 and then all of a sudden the storm picks up more or it’s going to be more prolonged, then the National Weather Service sends out another alert stating now it’s been extended until 11 or 12, and when that happens, that’s why you see multiple alerts coming in. . .And I had to talk to several citizens because they want to call in to take themselves off (the REGROUP alert system) and explain to them why, that it’s not the same message, and if you listen to the voice message that comes in, you can hear where there’s something different within that message, whether it’s time or the threat of the actual emergency,” she added.
Aldaco said besides the sirens, she is also looking into other ways the city could notify citizens.
“It’s not just sirens that we could be going for. In the old days, when I was little, it was TV. You would see the message on the bottom (of the screen), so maybe there’s a way that we could somehow. . .go back to that or if we could look for funding for more bulletin boards where you could put the message, so people who are out and on the streets can see that. . .so they can view the message and see they need to get to safety,” she said.
Martinez asked how citizens could sign up for Regroup notifications.
Aldaco said citizens can use the city’s website, www.cityofdelrio.com, go to emergency management, then click on the link, or they can call 830-775-2313, the city’s emergency operations center, and an operator there will help the citizen sign up.
Gutierrez said, “Since you’re exploring other avenues, other methods of communicating with our citizens whenever there’s any type of an emergency, the sheriff of Val Verde County, uses an app called ‘SheriffConnect,’ and so, does the city of Del Rio have any chance to push out notifications?”
Aldaco said the city formerly used the 830Go app but has stopped using it.
“So that might be something worth exploring,” Gutierrez said.
The city council took no action following the presentation, and city staff moved on the discuss other projects.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
