Fayette County, KY

## History

Fayette County's siren system dates back to the late 70's or early 80's, mostly likely for regular civil defense use during the Cold War (seeing as the money to install the first system was provided from a Civil Defense grant), or as weather sirens, considering these were installed 5 years after the super outbreak of 1974, or even for the CSEPP program, as Fayette County has been involved in the program since the opening of the Bluegrass Army Depot and is a neighbor of Madison County.

The original system comprised of Whelen WS-2000-16s at 15 locations, but a 16th was added in 1980 at Tates Creek Golf Course. No photos exist of any of the old sirens prior to 2010. It is unknown if these sirens Whelen controls from the beginning. In the late 90's and early 2000's, Fayette County added 11 sirens to their system, bringing the up the total number to 27. These were the first wave of Modulators comprising of both 5020s and 4016s. These were also paid for by the government in the form of FEMA, with the exception of the 4016 installed at Kroger Field stadium on the University of Kentucky campus, which was paid for by the University itself. These had MCs and most likely led to them being used for the rest for the system.

Replacement and upgrade of the old sirens began in 2008, when the first WS-2000-16 was replaced with a Modulator 5020 at Kenawood Park. The 2000-16s would be slowly replaced throughout the years from 2009 to the mid 2010s. Along with the replacement of the 2000-16s, the older Modulators' controllers were also replaced with Ultravoice around the same time. Moving forward to 2016, several more sirens were needed in Lexington, again being Modulator 4016s and 5020s. 3 of these sirens were installed in 2016 and 2017 respectively, bringing the total number to 30 sirens.

The old WS-2000-16 from Jacobson Park was kept in storage by the county and would be put to use again. However, 2 of its arrays were removed and the siren was fitted with Ultravoice. This siren was originally installed on top of a parking garage serving the police station in downtown in 2010 but was moved 2 blocks away to the roof of one of the courthouse buildings in 2019.

In 2023, Lexington got another new siren, this being a Modulator 4016B. It was very recently installed, only being put into place just on the 29th of January in time for the February test, but it is unlikely it sounded for the test that day.

## Schedule

Sirens in Fayette County are tested on the first Wednesday of the month at 10:00 AM, although are known to sound anywhere from 10:00 to 10:20. The sirens are activated by the Fayette County Emergency Management Agency. They are also known also do polling tests, most likely weekly but on an unknown date and time and can occasionally output their polling tones on the sirens themselves. They also have done voice tests, with the voice announcement being the usual message but with a countdown from 10-1 and then 1-10.

### Tone Set

Fayette County's current tone set was introduced some time in between 2008 and the mid-2010s, which is as follows:

* **Tests**: Westminster chime and a voice announcement, usually text to speech but will rarely have live voice.
* **Severe Thunderstorms**: Westminster chime and a voice announcement using text to speech relayed from the NWS message issued.
* **Tornado watch**: Westminster chime and a voice announcement using text to speech relayed from the NWS message issued.
* **Tornado warning**: Alert or wail signal followed by a voice announcement using text to speech from the NWS.
* **Other**: Wail signal followed by a text to speech voice announcement describing the emergency.

Sometime between 2020 and 2022, the voice message for tests was slightly changed.

* **Old test message:** "Siren test. This is a test of the siren system. This is only a test. No action is required."
* **New test message:** "Siren test. This is a test of the siren system. No action is required."