Letter of Intent

Hazard Mitigation Grant Program

For
The City of Owensboro

Just in the last few years the City of Owensboro has experienced several tornado events. October
2007 a powerful storm system moved across the Midwest leaving a swath of destruction from the
Great Lakes to the Gulf coast. As the storm progressed into the Western Kentucky region the
severe weather spawned a record number of tornadoes, 13 were confirmed before the storm
move out of the area. Daviess County was stuck by four of the tornadoes, one rated a category 3
hit directly in downtown Owensboro, resulting in significant damage and several injuries.
Just seven years prior, Owensboro was struck by a category 3 tornado in January 2000. Within
four minutes after touchdown the tornado caused 9,000 homes to lose electrical power; destroyed
1001 houses and 138 apartments; damaged another 1,603 houses and 35 business, caused $15
million dollars in damage to public property and $70 million total damage in a three-county area
(most of it in Daviess County).
Not withstanding the climatic disasters, Owensboro and Daviess County are home to several
large scale chemical storage facilities. Aluminum Phosphide, Anhydrous Ammonia and Sodium
Cyanide are but a few of the lethal components that, if airborne, would result in a catastrophic
loss of life in the tens of thousands; a sobering statistic knowing that the City of Owensboro lies
between two active fault zones, the new Madrid and Wabash. Since most of the existing storage
structures were constructed before the Midwest adopted the same stringent construction
guidelines as the west coast, even low scale disturbances could result in the accidental release of
chemicals.
The City of Owensboro understands the degree of coordination that is required among its public
and first responders. Unfortunately, the present weather notification system dramatically hinders
our ability to adapt to potential disasters. The current alert system was purchased and
implemented in 1999. Due to limited funding, the city was only able to acquire fifteen sirens,
protecting less of the populace than we originally hoped. The city has continued to annex
property in an escalated rate in the last nine years. This has led to the explosion of housing
construction, primarily on the fringes of the City/County border areas. These areas were never
factored in when the project was initially implemented.
The current weather alerting system is comprised of eighteen individual distribution points.
Each location houses four amplifiers, each with its own corresponding speaker horn. 14 of these
networks of sirens are limited to deploying tone broadcasts only. This lack of voice notifications
continues to plague the city. Over the past several years the city has realized the need for
additional mass notification systems, especially systems that could be deployed at several park
complexes throughout the city. Examples of the proposed locations include: softball fields, golf
courses, and soccer and baseball fields. Dubbed Kentuckys #1 Sports Town by Sports
Illustrated, Owensboro hosts numerous sporting events throughout the year. The various
2

sporting events held in Owensboro bring in thousands of spectators each year. Unfortunately the
various parks that play host to these events can not adequately inform their patrons of possible
weather changes or relay evacuation information.
The Citys GIS department undertook an aggressive undertaking to map the location of the
existing alert siren systems as well as the locations of several park complexes. They
incorporated various layers of information (see attached maps) such as the Citys property
boundaries as of 2014 and a 4500 foot diameter circle encompassing each existing stack location.
The circles represent the minimum acceptable audio levels required. Households, parks and
businesses not located within a circle represent a dead zone.
The results of the evaluation proved astounding, over 1800 households and numerous businesses
and parks were not adequately covered with the existing notification system. We also have
determined that none of the recreational areas are adequately protected with a voice capable
notification system. In the event of a natural disaster, the parks personnel are limited to runners
and portable voice notification boxes to alert the public and assist in the evacuation process.
Facing both situations, lack of coverage with existing sirens and non existing voice notification
systems for recreation areas, a plan was developed to acquire five new siren systems with voice
notification capabilities. Place these systems adjacent to the most heavily utilized recreation
areas. Three of the newly acquired voice systems would replace existing tone stacks. The three
pre-existing tone only sirens would be removed and reutilize into newly annexed areas that lack
proper weather alerting capabilities. This recycling endeavor will ensure that the majority of the
1800 households outside the current notification areas are protected.
Owensboro, along with most communities in Kentucky, continues to struggle with a rapidly
increasing budget and ever decreasing revenue. This places a strain on city government to fund
even the most basic of services for its citizens. This is this reason why the city is requesting
funds to acquire five new voice capable weather notification systems from Whelen systems. The
units will be installed in the five largest/heavily used complexes. Three tone-only systems will
be relocated to fill in dead zones created by real estate annexing since 1999. Two in-house
technicians will install and maintain the additional units. The cost savings versus installation of
an outside source is display on the attached budgetary sheet. The cost savings more that makes
up for the 13% matching requirement mentioned in the grant application. In addition to the five
new systems, a small quantity of spare modules will be acquired to ensure a 100% uptime rate on
the system is realized.
Along with the request for five voice notification systems, the city is requesting a remote
activation capability be acquired to assist the Parks personnel. Budgetary constraints have
effected the parks department like no other city agency. Their manpower budget continues to be
slashed in favor of other public safety requirements. Yet it is the parks personnel that are in the
best position to notify the attending public of adverse conditions. This lack of available
manpower is the underlying rationale for asking for the handheld radios (see budgetary sheet) for
remote activation of the voice notification systems. The systems being proposed will allow parks
personnel the ability to remotely activate and communicate anywhere in the city. Each stack
can be activated individually or all stacks can be controlled with the Motorola radio option listed
on the budget listing.

The budgetary figures are listing on the attachment B. The cost for miscellaneous
materials is 3257.00, approximately 3000.00 of that line item is the labor itself. We would
utilize in-house expertise to install the units ourselves. The cost savings of 3000.00 per
stack would prove more than the required match of 13%.
Attachment A

Information for Grant

Legion Park
Legion Park provides citizens of Owensboro with 2 tennis courts, 2 basketball courts, a
walking trail, playground equipment, 2 picnic shelters, and a Spraypark. Legion Park
remains one of our more popular parks. Though the exact number of people who visit
Legion Park each day is difficult to quantify, we estimate that 200 children per day visit
the Spraypark during the summer with groups of 85 or more visiting each day. In
addition, we offer tennis lessons in Legion Park, and the walking trail remains popular
with runners, walkers, and bicyclers. The outdoor basketball courts are in constant use;
in fact, they are so heavily used that we have made the courts open 24 hours. The
picnic shelters are reserved for the public April through September. On an average year
we have 292 reservations totally 22,000 people. A safe estimate of the number of
people in the park on an average summer day would be 350 - 400 people. With violent
and unexpected weather changes that are common in the area, a voice-activated alarm
system would enable us to alert the people in the park of extreme weather and prompt
them to safety. We especially need to tell the children playing in the Spraypark to get
away from the water during lightening.
Moreland Park
Moreland Park is the home of the Moreland Park Tennis Center, which has twelve
courts that are constantly used. We offer tennis lessons for approximately 120 children
in the summer. We also host tennis tournaments each summer, attracting over 600
players from across the state. The Moreland Park Tennis Association fills the courts
most nights of the week for adult tennis lessons, and local high schools and colleges
leave few nights and courts unoccupied. In addition, Western Baseball uses Moreland
Park baseball diamonds for their 91 area children to practice and play games. There is
one picnic shelter we reserve approximately 124 times a year serving 9,300 people.
Also in the park is a playground, walking track, basketball courts, and volleyball courts.
Approximately 200 - 250 people use the park at any given time in the summer. Having
a warning system to warn of weather conditions would ensure the safety of our citizens.
Moreland Park is also the site of many Community Wide Special Events such as Ghosts
and Goblins in the Park, Corporate Challenge, Pumpkin Fest, and Senior Games
totaling over 15,000 participants.
Smothers Park
Smothers Park will be the sight of the City of Owensboros River Walk, which is now
under construction. Smothers Park stands adjacent to the RiverPark Center, and the
area holds two of the largest festivals in Owensboro. The Barbeque Festival is an
annual event held each May, during the peak of unpredictable weathers, and 75,000
people attend the event over a weekend. Every Friday in the summer, the area
welcomes people for the Friday After 5 outdoor concert series. Over the course of the
summer, 35,000 people attend the concerts. With the area right on the river, it is
4

especially vulnerable to severe weather changes, and we could offer heightened

security to these citizens with a hand-held alert system where we could direct people to
safety.
Thompson-Berry Soccer Complex
The Thompson-Berry Soccer Complex has ten soccer fields and no shelter. In severe
weather, players and spectators at the park need as much warning about impending
weather situations as possible to find safety. Last year, 700 children participated in the
leagues and 2,500 attended a spring Soccer Tournament. Having an effective alert
system would give these children and their guardians the time they need to find shelter.
Hillcrest Golf Course
Hillcrest is a year-round, 9-hole municipal course. It offers a complete clubhouse with a
golf shop, gas cart rental, and snack bar.
Season Pass Holders: 214
Daily Fee Customers: 11,316
Summer Golf Camp: 100 Youth
Jr. Golf Series: 62 Youth
Business League: 88 golfers
Scrambles: 64 golfers
Number of 9-Hole Rounds by Pass Holders: 16,539
Number of 9-Hole Rounds Played: 30,179

Attachment B

April 29, 2008

Ron Jackson
City of Owensboro
Ron,
Thank you for your interest in our Whelen product line. The following is pricing for a Voice
capable siren for your existing system.

WPS-2804 Series sirens

WPS2904
VC2020H
VINTRU
BSETVOR
WPSNCMIC
Installation
Shipping
Utility Pole

118dBc Omni-directional siren

10 digit DTMF VHF Radio (two-way)
Intrusion alarm
One pair of Whelen approved batteries
Noise cancelling microphone
Includes misc. hardware and set-up
(Estimated)
(Estimated)
Each Subtotal Total

(5)
(3)
(1)

WPS2904 Voice Siren Systems ($18,604 each) 93,020.00

Handheld Activation Radio ($496 each)
1,488.00
Spare boards
4,350.00
Total
$98,858.00

$11,650.00
1,730.00
148.00
400.00
86.00
3,570.00
500.00
520.00
18,604.00

Handheld radio for activation and voice announcements.

Customer is to order the electrical service connection after it has been inspected.

We appreciate your business. If you have any questions, please dont hesitate to call me.
Regards,

Paul J. Bratcher
Senior Field Representative