City council votes to end ‘Code Red’ service, invest in weather warning sirens

By John Dilmore
john@casscountynow.com

The Atlanta City Council on Monday voted to cancel its subscription to the Code Red weather warning system, choosing to invest that money instead in future upgrades to the city’s system of early warning sirens.
The Code Red service, for which the city has been paying a $7,500 annual subscription fee, allows users to register online to receive phone calls warning of weather emergencies, City Manager David Cockrell said.
The council’s decision was based largely on the way technology has changed how people receive notice of impending bad weather.
“Since the City of Atlanta first signed up for Code Red, these phones and the technology of the notifications from your local TV stations, or any number of apps, gets you really probably better data, straight from the National Weather Service,” Cockrell said. “You don’t need to go through Code Red to do this.
“And I would say that the people who might not have these” – Cockrell held up a cell phone – “can hear our (weather warning) sirens, or they’re inside and they have the availability of a TV.”
The idea of canceling the Code Red subscription has come up in the past. In addition to technology changing how people receive weather alerts, the city has since that time installed a tornado warning system, “that still needs a little expansion, but it’s in place,” Cockrell said.
When Councilman Randy Pennington asked about the volume of the city’s weather sirens outside the immediate areas where they’re located – mentioning that he had not personally heard one go off –Cockrell explained how the city’s system is intended to function.
“They are not intended to alert you inside your home,” Cockrell said. “They are intended to alert you outside your home. I can’t hear them either inside my home … but I can go outside my home and hear them very well.”
Cockrell also later mentioned that the sirens are set at the correct level for the area they are supposed to cover, and are, “in tune with the curvature of the earth.”
The sirens are located along traffic corridors, near local schools and outdoor recreation facilities and on the business and travel loop. Both Cockrell and Mayor Keith Crow pointed out that it would be beneficial to add additional sirens around town, something the money currently being spent on Code Red could make possible.
Crow said, “When Code Red was installed it was a real good deal. At this point I think it’s kind of a waste of money. Personally, I would like to see the money … keep it in the line item for emergency services.”
Cockrell mentioned creating an emergency warning fund that would start out with a balance of $7,500 – this year’s Code Red fee – which would be rolled over into next year, when another $7,500 would be budgeted to be added. Two years’ worth of fees would be enough to purchase a new siren – or one year, if matching grant funds could be attained.
The council voted to cease paying for Code Red and put the money into the city’s alert system.
In other action, the council completed a long process involving multiple public hearings by voting to amend the city’s zoning regulations, reducing the number of zoning districts in Atlanta from 17 to 12.
 “There was a lot of redundancy,” Cockrell said. Later, he added, “Many moons ago, when the city adopted the zoning regulations, they took zoning regulations – most all of them good – from a much larger city … ”
A public hearing on the matter was opened during Monday evening’s meeting, but no members of the public were there to speak.
The council also voted to set a public hearing date of April 17 on the demolition of a number of dilapidated and/or deteriorated properties around the city.