Sheridan to Become Storm Ready City

The City of Sheridan will become a storm ready city by the beginning of tornado season next year. The council gave its approval at last night’s regular Sheridan City Council meeting for the city to take its first steps. It will not cost the city any money and it will provide training and resources for the city to be prepared in the event of severe weather.
Since the tornado in Joplin, there has been more emphasis on guidelines on when and when not to sound emergency sirens. More and more, the trend is moving towards not sounding emergency sirens under any circumstances except tornadoes. The reason is that people get to where they don’t pay attention when the emergency siren is sounded. Another change that is coming is that sirens will be set to where if the Sheridan siren is sounded because it is in the path of a tornado, for instance, the Denver siren will not be sounded. Currently, the Sheriff can use the Road and Bridge channel to sound the sirens, but it activates all of them and not just one. That is a potential problem if, for instance, Grant City is in the path of a tornado, but not Sheridan.
The focus will be on contingency planning and the city will develop a storm management plan; for instance, there will be directions on where to go in the event of a tornado.
Economic Developer Tammy Ueligger gave her report to the city. The Wool Shop is the Business of the Month; Leland Wake won a cookbook from the Wool Shop and Geneveive Walker won a Centennial Quilt from when Worth County celebrated the 100th anniversary of its Courthouse.
The water fund was down to $3,000 due to repairs in the water system. The system still needs wires and a conduit, but it is running much better than it was. For instance, there is no longer a danger of the well motor  overheating if the water gets too low because the system is not pumping water for some reason. The city will move money out of the general fund to cover the shortfall.
The council voted to raise water rates $2 per month to $22.50 for 2,000 gallons, which is the minimum. They also raised the rate scale by $1 per month for each additional 1,000 gallons of usage.
The chlorine tester quit working for the city.
The leak on the water tower is fixed.
Mayor Leland Wake said that the city owed the late mayor Bud Allee a debt of gratitude for putting in the north well and upgrading the water system so that it is still usable.
The city voted to donate $100 to a planned area business directory for the county that is being put together by Economic Developer Tammy Ueligger. The County Commission also voted to do so at their regular meeting Monday; the Grant City Council has already done so.