GOOD NEWS: ‘Valuable friend’ answers call to help sound the siren in City of Turkey

TURKEY, Texas (KFDA) - Like many communities in our area, the town of Turkey uses outdoor warning sirens to help keep their residents informed when the weather turns dangerous.

But recently the warning siren in Turkey has been on the fritz.

“Well the one that we have it’s just old. You can’t hear it in parts of town, so that was the biggest reason,” said Matt Edwards, Turkey Fire Department Chief.

Without a reliable siren, the city had to resort to other means to alert folks when there was an emergency.

“We were taking this truck here one time and we were going up and down streets just to warn people, you know, because you couldn’t hear it in parts of town,” Edwards said. “So that’s what we were having to do that.”

This method turned out to be less than ideal as it prompted residents to come outside to see what was happening instead of sheltering in place.

The solution was a new siren, but at $30,000, the cost was prohibitive. That’s when the city of Canyon became a valuable friend.

“We were having some siren issues a few years ago, and finally we just brought it to a head with the commission,” said Canyon City Manger Joe Price. “We need to make a large investment in our siren and outdoor warning system.”

The acquisition of new sirens meant that Canyon would have some used sirens in surplus.

“Its taken almost a year to get those sirens in due to the supply demand issues,” Price said. “But, you know, we wanted to give away our sirens that we had and eventually we’re going to decommission a lot more.”

The community of Turkey jumped on the opportunity.

“I’d seen them on Facebook so I reached out to them and they said they would donate to us,” Edwards said.

It turned out to be a community helping out another community.

“They just simply put in a formal request to us and we just, you know, did some documentation to turn it over to them. No money. No money asked you know, it’s just what neighbors do,” Price said.

With the sirens now on hand, the folks in Turkey are anxious to try them out.

“We’ll finish painting this one, and we’ll put it up and try it. And we’ll probably put this one up on the east end of town by Allsups and go from there,” Edwards said.

“We all have that spirit spirit you know that giving spirit, leadership spirit, and that’s just another tip of the hat of you know we’re here to help and we’re going to help our fellow man,” Price said.

When these tornado sirens sound off here in Turkey it’ll be almost like some friend in Canyon calling over to help.

Now, that’s some good news.

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