Roselle considers alert system

A number of Roselle residents for years have been demanding a severe weather warning system.

They may finally get their wish.

Roselle village officials have directed staff to seek proposals for the installation of outdoor sirens and examine the possibility of a lightning alarm system.

"I'm glad it's being discussed," said Lisa Basso, a resident who has collected roughly 150 names in favor of some type of system. "We shouldn't need to rely on other communities to be warning us."

Bloomingdale, Itasca, Schaumburg, Hanover Park, Glendale Heights, Elk Grove Village and Addison have sirens. Roselle has discussed installing a severe weather system in the past, but it never came to fruition.

"It used to be that I never saw a need for it," Roselle Mayor Gayle Smolinski said. "But I do think we've had some very interesting, unexpected weather in the past couple of years."

Gov. Rod Blagojevich declared DuPage County a state disaster area last month following severe storms that destroyed thousands of trees, crushed cars and left many without power for days. While Roselle didn't succumb to as much damage as other towns, the storms have left an imprint.

Village officials estimate it will cost between $40,000 to $50,000 to install sirens. The board would have to decide where and how many to install. Some locations that have been mentioned include downtown Roselle, the public works facility and Lake Park High School West Campus.

"It's my opinion that this is not only a village issue." Trustee Sam Tornatore said, "It (also) belongs to the schools and the parks."

The village would have to seek intergovernmental agreements with other taxing bodies to install sirens on their property.

While most board members appeared to support installing the sirens, the lightning detection system idea got a less enthusiastic response -- mainly because it would be difficult to establish a village-wide alert.