All of the tornado sirens for St. Clair County’s new, countywide warning system for dangerous weather have now been installed.
It’s a project that took more than two years to complete.
The St. Clair County Board voted to sign a $2.49 million contract with Acoustic Technology, Inc. Systems at its Oct. 24, 2022, meeting.
The company planned to replace 79 existing sirens across the county and install 43 new ones to provide outdoor warning coverage to every community, unless officials opted out. The project was paid for with federal COVID-related relief funds from the American Rescue Plan.
Installations began in March 2023 in Sugarloaf Township, which didn’t previously have sirens.
ATI Systems was in St. Clair County the last week of May 2025 finalizing the work, according to County Emergency Management Agency Director Herb Simmons’ monthly report to the County Board members.
“It’s been a long process,” Simmons said during the May 27 Public Safety Committee meeting. “They were all tested again this month with no problems. So I’m excited to get that project put to bed.”
Simmons confirmed Monday that all the sirens have been installed. He said engineers are conducting final inspections prior to “full system acceptance.” He didn’t know how long the inspections might take.
Simmons initially estimated that it would take the company until late spring or early summer 2023 to complete installations. He said in a recent interview that supply chain issues were the main reason for the delay.
Previous ATI Systems CEO Ray Bassiouni also blamed supply chain delays in a March 2024 statement to the Belleville News-Democrat. He said that the company was also tied up because it was awarded many military contracts at the same time. Another factor in the delay was that ATI Systems was supplying equipment for the Israel-Hamas war, according to Bassiouni.
ATI Systems didn’t respond to recent requests for further comment.
Simmons said the final sirens were installed in Stookey Township. It was one of the communities that also experienced delays because underground utility lines were discovered where the municipality wanted to install poles, according to Simmons. They had to find property owned by the municipality where the sirens could be installed.
Sirens alert people who are outside that dangerous weather like a tornado or severe storm is approaching and they should head inside. St. Clair County’s new sirens will sound when the National Weather Service puts out an alert.
The county also continues to use the mobile weather alert system CodeRED. Residents can sign up for the CodeRED alerts by visiting the county website www.co.st-clair.il.us/departments/emergency-management-agency.
Editor's note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat. Lexi Cortes is a reporter for the BND, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
