By Angel Perkins Correspondent
A new emergency siren is ready for service to warn Bourbon residents to seek shelter during inclement weather.
The siren (purchased from Emergency Radio Services of Elkhart) was installed June 15 at the west side of the Bourbon emergency medical services building by Michiana Con-tracting.

It was said that mounting the siren on a pole standing at the Multi-Township EMS location at North and Main (S.R. 331) streets was the best place for it to reach the furthermost residents from the center of Bourbon’s business district.
“After the tornados that went through Nappanee (Oct. 18, 2008) representatives from the emergency management agency let area communities apply for money to update their systems,” said Bourbon Clerk-Treasurer Kim Berger. “
A little more than $1,000 of town money was used to supplement the generous donation, granting $20,298 from the City of Nappanee’s surplus. The siren rotates 360 degrees projecting an alert that sounds at a steady level but sounds louder at times than others depending on the direction it is facing and the strength of the wind at the time.
“But it won’t sound for fires,” Berger explained. “We searched for a louder decibel system so we could get it to go about a mile further than the one we first ordered.”
The use of air conditioners or televisions by residents — and other circumstances involving noise — can considerably affect how well someone  will hear the alarm. The emergency siren can be activated by the local fire department as well as the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office in cases when threatening weather information is received by the National Weather Service.
The Bourbon Fire Department plans to continue to use and sound the fire alert siren from the town services building the first Monday evening of each month at 7 p.m., and will regularly test the new siren. Berger said the county tests emergency alerts bi-annually so expects that it will also sound the new Bourbon alarm according to their regular schedule.