The siren that has been alerting the village of fire and rescue calls for much of the past 20 years may not be used again.

Once upon a time, there were no computers, no electronic communications and no cell phones. Forty or more years ago, the Manchester Township fire fighters, as well as the community, were alerted to a fire or rescue call by means of a siren. At one time that siren was located at 120 South Clinton Street in the Manchester Township/Village Hall which also served as the community's fire station until 1978, when the new township hall and fire department were constructed at 275 S. Macomb, which is where it resides now.

Bill Scully, the current fire chief of Manchester Township, told the Mirror in 2017, “Back in the day the fire siren was the only way that the firefighters were notified of a call. If the siren blew once, the call was in town; if it blew twice, the call was out of town. Mrs. Kirk, who lived above (what is now Manchester Diner), was our emergency phone operator. The emergency number back then was a 428- number that rang at her apartment. She would take the information, activate the fire siren and then start calling the firefighters at home or at work. The phone call follow-up was in case they didn’t hear the siren."

Once the department started using pagers, the siren was still used as an additional means of notifying the firefighters, and it remained at the village hall and continued to blow for calls. When the village offices moved to City Road, and the building was sold, the new owner didn’t want the siren blowing in his building so it was disconnected.

Residents missed the siren blowing, Scully explained, as it gave them notice to turn on their scanners and find out where the trucks were headed. So, the township purchased a used siren in the early 2000s, and activated it at the new township hall.

But, as new technology progressed and the firefighters upgraded their paging notification system to 800 MHz in March 2017, the siren was no longer functional. Upon polling residents, Scully discovered that a majority of those who responded were in favor of reinstating the siren, so it was upgraded and started blowing again in September of that year.

In May, 2020, a vehicle crash caused a complete electrical failure at the township hall, and since that time the siren has not worked at all. "It does need a replacement board to make it functional again," Scully explained. "But, we have not noticed any change in our responses since it has been off."

The topic came up at the October Manchester Township meeting and will be revisited at the November 9 meeting next week, with the possibility of either repairing it or selling it on the table. Scully says he is not sure whether he's in favor of reinstating it again.

"With the number of calls we are running, it would be a huge annoyance to the neighbors during the day," he said. "I know people miss it, but most used it to turn their scanners on to listen to who's house we were responding to. At this time I'm for leaving it off, and if it has any [monetary] value and the board would like to sell it, I'm not going to object."