Vilonia Fire Department gets grants for sirens, addition

Keith Hillman, left, director of emergency management for the Vilonia Fire Department, and K.C. Williams, deputy director of emergency management, stand in front of Vilonia Fire Station No. 2, which will receive an addition to house more equipment. The project will be paid for with a grant. Grants were also received to add four tornado sirens in Vilonia.
Keith Hillman, left, director of emergency management for the Vilonia Fire Department, and K.C. Williams, deputy director of emergency management, stand in front of Vilonia Fire Station No. 2, which will receive an addition to house more equipment. The project will be paid for with a grant. Grants were also received to add four tornado sirens in Vilonia.

VILONIA — Before Arkansas’ primary tornado season rolls around again, Vilonia will have four new sirens to help warn residents if dangerous weather is approaching.

Dirt work was expected to start this week on installation of the sirens, said Keith Hillman, emergency management director for the Vilonia Fire Department.

The city has received approximately $53,000 through the state General Improvement Fund via the Arkansas Department of Rural Services for three of the sirens. Another siren is being funded by a $20,000-plus grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“The sirens have been ordered,” Hillman said. “We’re just waiting to get them in and be installed.”

The Vilonia City Council this month approved the low bid of $53,580 from SimplexGrinnell in North Little Rock for three sirens and installation, said Mayor James Firestone. The FEMA siren will be installed by the company for $22,000.

Vilonia will have a total of seven tornado sirens after the work

is done.

Firestone said the new sirens will give more peace of mind to a city that has been struck by two large tornadoes, one in 2011 and another in April that destroyed the majority of downtown Vilonia and killed eight residents.

“That was one of the things we were trying to make sure of, that our coverage was a little better,” Firestone said.

“We’re replacing the [siren] that was by City Hall; we moved it to a different location. It was in center of town — we moved it to a site down South Church Street,” Firestone said.

Hillman said the siren paid for with the FEMA grant is going to be “a great big one” and will be put on Church Street near the former City Hall. “That one is to replace our big one that was destroyed [by the April tornado],” he said.

The three other locations for sirens will be at Beryl Road and Main Street; at the U.S. 64 bypass and South Mount Olive Road; and at Eagle Street and the U.S. 64 bypass.

Hillman said the three sirens that sounded during the April tornado were beneficial.

“I think a lot of people did [hear them]. A lot of people now are relying on apps on their smartphones. This is another tool, if you’re outside and don’t have your phone,” he said.

Faulkner County also participates in the Code Red weather warning, and residents may sign up to receive alerts on their smartphones when threatening weather is imminent. “That works out great,” Hillman said.

The Vilonia Fire Department also received a $37,500 General Improvement Fund Grant for an addition to Fire Station No. 2 at Cypress Creek Road and Arkansas 319, east of Vilonia, as well as to make improvements to the department’s training center on Stanley Road.

A 40-by-50-foot metal building on a concrete pad will connect to the existing station, Hillman said. The

building will be used to house two more trucks — a pumper and a brush truck — as well as smaller firefighting equipment. The total cost is $50,000 to expand the station and make improvements to the training center, and the Fire Department will be responsible for the amount not covered by the grant, $12,500.

K.C. Williams, assistant fire chief, said the department did most of the work on the training center, which included welding steel freight-container boxes to make a structure and building stairs.

“We have completed everything on the training center this month necessary for us to do legal training in it, even though we have plans to expand it and make it a little bit bigger and a little bit better,” Williams said.

“The city of Vilonia does not financially support this fire department — at all,” Williams said. “We get absolutely zero funds from the [city’s] general fund. Our salaries, the money we generate for the Fire Department, all the equipment that we buy come from fire dues, and a sales tax and grants that I write.”

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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