Alarm for city’s alarm system was ringing loud and clear in 1997
Trouble comes for everyone sooner or later but the process of getting a quick response from emergency responders has changed a lot over the years.
They’ve ranged from bells to police call boxes to the modern 911 system. Many people now subscribe to private security systems that contact 911 Central Dispatch when trouble arrives.
The bell that now stands at the First Street entrance of the Henderson County Courthouse rang at 10 p.m. every night to announce curfew, according to the town trustee minutes of July 30, 1846, and I’m thinking it’s a good bet it was also used to sound fire alarms.
The city’s minutes of April 25, 1876, document the purchase of an alarm bell to place atop what was then the city building. The city didn’t get around to accepting the services of a volunteer fire department until two years later, however.
In 1914 a bell was placed atop the main fire station on Elm Street, although there were plans to remove it eight years later, according to the Henderson City Commission’s minutes of Nov. 20, 1922.
Public Safety Commissioner Frank Haag said it was apt to fall through the roof and kill firefighters. The rest of the Henderson City Commission referred the matter to him with power to act.
It doesn’t appear the bell was removed at that time, however. The Gleaner of Feb. 10, 1923, reported Haag was instructing the Fire Chief Harry Stolzy to go back to the old system of ringing the bell whenever a fire occurred.
Stolzy didn’t much care for that idea. “He said that when the alarm was given by the bell that people in automobiles rushed to the fire and greatly retarded the work of the firemen.”
It appears Henderson also once had police call boxes. The photo that accompanies this column appears to depict one that once stood at the northeast corner of Holloway and Washington streets. Those types of alarm systems fell from use as the 911 system was adopted. (Henderson did that in 1986.)
Before private alarm systems became popular up to 60 local businesses had alarms that were wired directly into 911 Central Dispatch. But by 1997 some of those users were generating far too many false alarms, prompting calls for regulation.
“In 1996 alone, city police responded to a record 1,151 false alarms (using about 261 man hours), while local firefighters reported 99,” said The Gleaner of Oct. 19, 1997. Police Chief Ed Brady said in a memo to the Henderson City Commission that over the previous five years the city had received an average of 990 false alarms annually.
“In each of the false alarm incidents, the motoring and pedestrian public and our responding officers’ safety was placed in jeopardy,” Brady wrote.
More than two false alarms annually would be decreed a public nuisance, under the proposed ordinance. Three to six alarms per year would cost $50. The proposed fine would go to $100 for six to nine incidents, and $150 for more than nine.
At that time 48 businesses paid $165 per year to be connected to the 911 center. Users would be grandfathered, but the proposed ordinance planned to restrict new users to schools, lodging houses, financial institutions, hospitals, nursing homes and other businesses with a “high loss potential.”
The Oct. 22 Gleaner reported the Henderson City Commission had discussed and made minor changes to the ordinance at a work session.
The owners of D&M grocery showed up and had some objections.
“I think you should be slightly more liberal” in the number of false alarms before penalties kick in, Jon Floyd said.
“There are going to be a lot of times you don’t have power over whether your alarm goes off” because of storms or other uncontrollable factors, Donnie Floyd said.
“We’re not here to generate money,” City Manager Jeff Broughton replied. “We’re here to stop false alarms. This has reached the level where we need to reduce this, to control it.”
The police chief said most of the false alarms came from the same eight to 10 businesses and were attributable to improper training of business personnel or inadequate maintenance of the alarm.
The ordinance had unanimous support when it came up for first reading, according to the Oct. 29 Gleaner.
Broughton said those who thought they had been unfairly penalized could appeal first to the police chief, and then to the city manager. The last resort would be an appeal to Henderson District Court.
Final approval came 25 years ago this week, according to the Nov. 12 Gleaner. Broughton pointed out that the number of false alarms would be counted on a calendar year, so approval of the ordinance late in 1997 gave owners some leeway.
“In two months we’ll start over at ground zero,” he said.
The 1997 ordinance – which regulated 48 businesses -- didn’t last very long in its original state. The Gleaner of Dec. 11, 2002, reported the city commission had increased the annual fee to $450. “Currently one house and 21 businesses use the city’s alarm monitoring service.”
The commission also awarded a contract worth $41,550 to Vanguard Sales Inc. of Evansville to buy an entire new system to monitor alarms for the 911 center.
The Henderson City Commission minutes of March 28, 2017, quoted City Manager Russell Sights as saying the alarm monitoring equipment “is close to defunct and is going to cost considerable dollars to be put back into quality service.
“Currently there are only eight outside businesses that are on the system along with seven city-owned properties. At one time there were as many as 55 or 60 businesses on the system. Over time these businesses have migrated to private sector security alarm systems.”
After discussing the matter, and the costs of upgrading, the city commission decided to shut down the system effective June 30, 2017.
100 YEARS AGO
Fewer than 50 veterans marched in the Armistice Day parade, according to The Gleaner of Nov. 12, 1922, a far cry from the throngs that packed Henderson’s streets the day World War I ended and even much different from the 1921 observance.
“How soon forgot the oft repeated pledge to treasure all the thoughts of those who bled and died beneath the flag.”
The previous year had seen “a parade of heroes, men and women and hundreds of school children who braved the blizzard’s blast to march with the boys of the (American) Legion,” the 1921 Gleaner story said.
Marching back to the Legion post from the 1922 service at First Baptist Church the veterans passed the corner of First and Main streets, “where a large crowd was standing around the platform of a street corner salesman. His audience numbered twice as many as those at the church.
“They paid scarce any heed to the khaki clad marchers and … the big flag fluttering above the column was unnoticed.
75 YEARS AGO
Local popcorn farmer J.W. Bond was thinking about expanding his operation to handle sunflower seeds, according to The Gleaner of Nov. 9, 1947.
“His popcorn processing plant could be used to sort and pack the seed … and shipping would be made to northern plants for processing” into cooking oil, birdseed, and oils for manufacturing.
Bond said sunflowers “can be used as an emergency crop if bad weather prevents planting of corn or tobacco, since sunflowers are normally planted in June.”
Bad weather had hurt his popcorn crop that year, he said, noting he expected to harvest about 1,000 acres, enough to fill 14 or 15 rail cars.
50 YEARS AGO
Two men were arrested for disorderly conduct because they were attempting to take photographs of an undercover drug agent testifying in Henderson Circuit Court, according to The Gleaner of Nov. 11, 1972.
Carl Wayne Ligon, 21, was on trial for dealing marijuana. He was found guilty and sentenced to three months in jail and a $500 fine.
Kentucky State Police Trooper Bobby Shanks was helping escort Ligon out of the courtroom “when two men in the audience tried to take Shanks’ picture and were ushered out of the courtroom.” They created a disturbance in the hall when the camera was confiscated, which prompted their arrests.
The two men were Donald Raymond Stevens, 25, and Marvin Wayne Hargis, 22.
The law enforcement officers maintained that if the photographs were developed and distributed, they would have destroyed Shanks’ anonymity and his future usefulness as an undercover officer.
“If there are pictures on the film taken prior to the courthouse incident, they will be returned to them, police said.”
Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.
This article originally appeared on Henderson Gleaner: Alarm for city’s alarm system was ringing loud and clear in 1997
