Last week, Lakewood, Ohio’s Outdoor Warning Siren System was replaced. The old system consisted of three EOWS-612’s which were originally installed in 1986 and were “upgraded” from SiraTone controls to MCP in 1998, and a MOD 6024 was added that same year.
Lakewood has followed a unique testing schedule than the rest of Cuyahoga County has for as long as they’ve had their electronic sirens since 1986. On the first, second, and third Saturdays of the month they test in Westminster Chimes, and on the last Saturday of the month, they test in the Alert tone for one minute. This has never changed. This differs from the rest of Cuyahoga County as they test on a monthly basis while only Brecksville and Lakewood test weekly. EDIT: As of July 2019, the City of Brecksville now tests monthly with the county after switching to the Chagrin Valley Dispatch network.
In recent years, a lack of maintenance to the -612’s and the fact that they never replaced the batteries in the MCPs left them unreliable. The MOD 6024 was the only siren properly working prior to replacement last week.
Last year, the City of Lakewood allocated a $120,000 budget for a new siren system to replace the old system. The new system that was just installed was under their budget.
In April, the City of Lakewood’s Board Of Control (BOC) approved a proposal by Bearcom Wireless Worldwide to replace the existing sirens with Federal Signal Modulator 4016B’s (Modulator IIs), and to upgrade and relocate the MOD 6024 in the existing system.
The MOD 6024 has been upgraded to the current system by replacing a blown speaker driver in one of the speaker cells with a new 100W driver and by replacing its outdated MCP with a new UltraVoice controller. This siren was relocated to Madison Park on Madison Avenue to provide coverage to that area. Lakewood Park received a new 4016B in the same place that the 6024 sat in prior to its relocation.
All four of the new 4016B’s were installed where the existing 612’s (and 6024) sat in. The one at Lakewood FD #1 is roof-mounted on the same mount that the 612 sat on.
Here’s a picture of the new 4016B at FD#1 (picture taken by another ARS member).
And here’s the BOC proposal if you want to get into specifics. The siren information can be found on Pages 6 through 8 of the April BOC Agenda. The estimate was subsequently approved and the new sirens were installed just last week at the end of June.
BOC Proposal: http://www.onelakewood.com/wp-content/u ... 041618.pdf
Photo of Siren 1: