Air raid siren should be retired
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Editor,
I am addressing my efforts to have the Ronan Volunteer Fire Dept. (RVFD) air raid siren use discontinued. I have been very clear to Ronan officials that I’m not anti-RVFD. I have been on two volunteer departments myself and greatly appreciate/understand their need. The issue is the unnecessary use of the 1940s air raid/civil defense siren that blares at 130 decibels for over a minute long. There is an apartment building less than 30 feet away from it as well as many other residences/businesses. The siren repeatedly goes off all hours of the day/night. Often the RVFD does not respond to the siren because the call outs are cancelled but the siren blares. I tried meeting with the city officials/fire chief to see if fundraisers/support was needed for the RVFD to help get lacking technology to be able to stop using the siren as VFDs across the U.S. have done. It was discovered the RVFD already has all the technology that makes the siren use unnecessary. A Ronan city official told me, “You might as well give up now. No matter what you say or do we’re not going to stop that siren.” She said the reason why was because I “was not born and raised here” and had no right to try and change how things are done. She then warned me that because I dared complain, city officials had gathered, “quite a bit of literature on me.” I grew up in a military family so moved a lot and no one controls where they were born. Trying to gather “dirt” on people voicing issues? Not ok.
Heather Reeves
Ronan
