The information below was sent today by David Janda, Deputy Director of Dane County Emergency Management:
Dane County Emergency Management is in the process of upgrading the countywide outdoor warning siren control system. Part of this process involves configuring and individually sounding each of the sirens as they are brought on-line on the new system. This configuration and testing is different from the first Wednesday of the month tests that we usually run.
Throughout the month of March, the sirens will be sounded one-by-one, for approximately 60 to 90 seconds in duration. It may also be necessary to sound a siren multiple times to finalize the configuration. In general, our contractor will be working form west to east across the county and we plan to configure about 8 sirens per day. Work is expected to begin on Wednesday, March 6th and will conclude by the end of March. Most of this work will be done during normal business hours, Monday through Friday. Depending on the weather and work scheduling, it is possible that there may be a need to work on Saturdays as well. The sirens will not be sounded before 9:00 am or after 5:00 pm.
If a threat of severe weather exists, the upgrading will be postponed until the threat has passed.
This project is part of a larger countywide system upgrade expected to be completed in April. Additional information on the over-all warning system upgrade project will be provided in the near future.