Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry The value, appropriateness, and health impacts of the emergency siren at Youngsville Volunteer Fire Department were debated at Monday evening’s meeting of Borough Council.

A Youngsville resident approached the Borough Council with a request on Monday — to let him get a good night’s sleep.

“I thought this was a quiet community,” Daniel Johnson said. “It’s not.”

He said the Youngsville Volunteer Fire Department siren is causing him, his wife, and other residents to miss out on uninterrupted sleep.

“Using sirens… is causing irreparable harm to residents’ health,” Johnson said. “The current practice is clearly detrimental. The negative impact (of sleep deprivation) is well-documented.”

Johnson said he and his wife recently returned from two months in Ukraine, where air raid sirens blared at all times of the day and night. They returned to Youngsville where there are no air-raid sirens.

“On day one, we hear the siren, morning, noon, night, early morning,” he said. “We’ve come back to a community that does not offer peace and rest.”

He said the problem is that the department does not utilize “available technology.”

He said a telecommunications system that could notify fire department members of emergencies “no matter where they are” could be had for about $5,000 per year.

“End the use of sirens in Youngsville,” Johnson said.

He suggested that, if the department continues to use sirens, they be shut off from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m.

“Invest in a new telecommunications system,” he said. “When municipal policies… are a public health hazard, they should be changed. It’s damaging to each and every person in this community when they can’t get a decent night’s sleep.”

Fire Chief Vern Edmisten was in attendance at the meeting and responded to Johnson’s concerns.

“I’m sorry if it does bother people,” he said. “I still think, for two individuals versus 1,800 people…”

The siren is not only used for notifying responders of an emergency, “We use that siren to alert everybody in town if there’s a tornado coming through,” Edmisten said.

He estimated it was activated five times in the last year.

Putting a timer on the siren so that it would not go off during a certain time of day would shut it down for those community-wide emergencies, he said. “There’s no way they can set that siren off in the middle of the night if there’s a tornado.”

The department could get a siren dedicated to weather and community-wide emergencies, but it would cost no less than $16,000, Edmisten said.

Johnson said the health impact to residents is “far past $16,000.”

Former Warren County Emergency Management Director and Council Member Todd Lake said Johnson’s recommended replacements for a siren system are not approved by the National Fire Protection Association.

“Siren and radio pagers are the only things that are FNPA approved,” he said. Going to any other system would increase homeowners insurance rates throughout the community.

Any change to the system would have to involve the fire department, Mayor Scott Nelson said. He recommended Johnson attend the next department meeting.

“We’re grateful for the fire department,” Johnson said. “We just want to sleep.”