There are 151 emergency sirens in Franklin County and Pleasant Township is adding to that.
The Pleasant Township Board of Trustees heard residents complain that they cannot hear the sirens and have been working to get new sirens installed within the 43 square miles that make up the township.
In April, the board announced their plans to purchase two emergency sirens in addition to the four existing ones. Those are located in Georgesville, Harrisburg, Darbydale and on Kropp Road. They would buy the sirens at $18,000 a piece through the Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security Office.
Then in May, the Franklin County Commissions told the board they would purchase five emergency sirens for the township and give them a three-year payback grace period, leaving Pleasant Township with nine sirens total. The only real problem was deciding on where to put them.
At the June 10 meeting, trustees announced tentative locations on where they wanted them to be placed, pending approval of the property owners.
"These five new ones will give us coverage in just about every area with a large populace of people," said township Chairman Keith Goldhardt. "I think they would light us up pretty good when they come on."
The five new areas that the sirens are scheduled to go up are; Riebel Road and Gardner Road; Kropp Road near Grove City Road; Zuber Road; Timberlake; and Opossum Run Road and Biggert Road.
From a map perspective, the area around Opossum Run Road and Biggert Road looks sparse, but it is quickly becoming heavily populated with new housing developments.
"It covers quite a lot of people," Goldhardt said. "We didn’t want to put up all the sirens and forget about the backdoor of the township."
Goldhardt said representatives with the Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security will handle the legal details if the new sirens go up on personal property.
He added if the property owners do not want the sirens on their land, they may have to move the tornado sirens several hundred feet away, but does not believe the county will use eminent domain.
In other news
•On June 3, there was a bomb scare at Pleasant View Middle School.
An eighth grade student let off an acid bomb (most commonly known as a MacGyver bomb) in the cafeteria of the school. No students were harmed and the property was not damaged when the mixture of household chemicals and aluminum foil went off.
Numerous agencies were on the scene (the Columbus Bomb Squad, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation), but the Pleasant Township Fire Department was the first responder and immediately took charge.
"I think that proved that our boys are ready in case anything like this happens again,"
Goldhardt said. "They did a wonderful job and I wish you all could have seen how professionally they operated."
•The 50th annual Georgesville Fish Fry will be held June 20-21.
The festivities will begin on Friday at 11 a.m. and last until 10 p.m., and the same hours apply for the following day. During those two days, over 18,000 pieces of fish will be given out and gobbled up.
