https://www.pressdemocrat.com/articl...cles/101119728
By BOB NORBERG
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 2:18 p.m.
A citizens committee next week will begin exploring alternatives to the Graton Fire Department’s controversial siren, viewed by some as critical to call out volunteers and others as a noisy nuisance.
The department will be moving into a fire station now under construction on Highway 116 at Green Valley Road and is taking the World War II-era siren, a legacy of Graton’s bucolic past, with it.
“The county went through the approval process and did approve the siren but asked the Fire Department to look into alternative technology,” said Greg Dabel, vice chairman of the committee. “That is our responsibility.”
Graton is one of the last of the Sonoma County fire departments still relying on a siren. Other departments have switched to cell phones and pagers.
Graton fire officials say there are areas in the fire district with dead spots where cell phones and beepers cannot be reached and the siren is the only reliable way to reach firefighters.
The county Board of Supervisors asked the department to set up the committee to assess alternatives and, in the meantime, to reduce use of the siren as much as possible.
“There are compelling reasons on both sides to have it and not have it,” Babel said. “I am quite open to mitigating or eliminating the siren, but I am also open to keeping it, and that might mean keeping it against the will of the people.”
Deputy Chief Bill Bullard said firefightes now only sound the siren at noon, for Thursday night training and in emergencies.
Citizens for a Better Community filed suit in Sonoma County Superior Court in March for an injunction but since has agreed to delay the suit while the technology is being evaluated.
The eight-member committee is holding its first meeting Tuesday night to hear an overview of the system in use and to outline the resources and research to begin exploring alternatives.
Dabel said he hears the siren from his house two miles away, but it is much louder close by.
“When you are standing across the street at the Post Office, it sounds like the blitzkrieg. It is loud, but it’s been doing it for 50 years and people are used to it,” Dabel said. “The issue is it is moving and there are new neighbors.”
Although the committee includes three members of the citizen’s group, members say they still believe the committee membership chosen by the fire board is stacked against them.
“I think it is forgone the committee will come back that there is solid alternative technology out there, otherwise everyone would still have a siren,” said Danelle Jacobs. “My belief is the Graton fire board will ignore that.”
Dabel thinks it’s the other way.
“There is only one representative, who is a firefighter, and me who is sympathetic,” he said. “The other six members are almost adamant against. If they are telling you it is stacked, I don’t agree.”
You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or [email protected].