County approves $43,510 for sirens and backup power grants
Ottertail, Underwood and Battle Lake will get sirens and backup power, giving three towns a better shot at warning neighbors and keeping critical facilities open in storms.
When the next spring thunderstorm rolls across Otter Tail County, Ottertail and Underwood will have a better shot at warning residents before danger turns fast, and Battle Lake will have backup power ready if the lights go out. The Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners approved three public-safety grants totaling $43,510 to help pay for two weather sirens and one generator.
The money goes to Ottertail and Underwood for outdoor warning systems and to Battle Lake for backup power. Those are small purchases on paper, but in a county where severe weather and outages can cut off communication in a hurry, they are the kind of upgrades that can keep a critical facility operating and give people on farms, in town, and along county roads time to act before conditions worsen.
The awards fit squarely inside Otter Tail County’s Hazard Mitigation Project Assistance Grant program, which was created as part of the county’s “Navigating the Road Ahead” initiative. County materials say the program is meant to reduce long-term risk to human life and property from severe winter and summer storms, with specific support for emergency generators and outdoor warning sirens.
For 2024, the county set aside $100,000 for the program. The guidelines capped awards at $20,000 per application and required applicants to bring at least $1 in local match for every $2 requested. Eligible applicants included cities, townships, school districts and other entities in Otter Tail County that had documented participation in the 2021 Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan.
The county’s wider mitigation planning gave the grants a broader purpose than a one-time purchase. Otter Tail County’s countywide Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan was approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Dec. 29, 2022, a step the county said made it and its communities eligible to leverage state and federal resources for mitigation projects. County emergency-preparedness materials also describe readiness as a collaborative effort to support planning, response and resource-sharing across local partners.
In practical terms, the latest grants are meant to do one thing well: make sure a siren sounds when a storm is bearing down and a generator starts when the power does not. For three Otter Tail County communities, that kind of readiness can decide whether an emergency stays manageable or turns into a much larger problem.
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