The Town of Hamlet’s siren continues to annoy residents. The siren apparently has a habit of turning on and then getting stuck.
Town Council President Dave Kesvormas says he’s been getting a lot of complaints, but he’s not ready to do away with the siren entirely. “If we eliminate the tower altogether and we have a tornado, there’s a problem,” he recently told the rest of the town council. And somebody doesn’t get alerted, somebody gets hurt, somebody gets killed, let’s pray not, but if that happens, that’s going to be an issue.”
He said he wants to work with the fire department to explore a number of options, like moving the siren to the fire station or giving firefighters access to the reset button in the town hall, each of which would have its own drawbacks.
Ultimately, Kesvormas said an expert will have to be called to figure out why the siren keeps sticking, but he felt its age and the availability of parts were factors. “I think that siren is probably 70 or 80 years old,” he noted. “All the old timers that used to know all that stuff are no longer with us, so I can’t ask.”
Clerk-Treasurer Kristina Pitts noted that on one night, the siren ran for a full 25 minutes.
