The Highland Fire Department is still compiling maintenance reports on allegedly faulty tornado sirens during a March storm after some residents said they didn’t hear sirens at all.
The Post-Tribune on April 30 filed via email an Access to Public Records Act request with the town asking for all fire inspection reports of town equipment between August 14, 2023 and April 30; and all written or electronic correspondence among Highland Fire Department members and Town Administrators about said reports during that same time. The dates capture the period immediately after Highland Fire Chief Bill Timmer died to the present.
Per Indiana Public Access rules, Highland Clerk-Treasurer Mark Herak responded within 24 hours that the town had received the request. The town then had seven business days — by May 9 — to either give the Post-Tribune an idea of when it could expect the request to be filled or explain under what code it’s denying it.
Neither the town nor Town Attorney John Reed responded by end of business day May 9, so the Post-Tribune reached out to the town May 12 for the status of the request. On May 19, Interim Fire Chief Mike Pipta responded and said the department was “in the process of compiling the information” and that they hoped to be finished by May 30.
On Friday afternoon, Pipta said via email, “Unfortunately, we have not finished compiling the information you requested. We will give you an update in two weeks, June 13th.”
Four tornadoes ripped through Lake County the evening of March 19: two EF-0 tornadoes and one EF-1 tornado in Gary and one EF-0 tornado that hit in roughly the center of Highland. Some residents reported to the Highland Police Department that they may have heard sirens in the distance, while others didn’t hear them at all, according to a HPD social media post March 21.
Because of that, Highland officials conducted a siren test at noon March 22, where they discovered two of the sirens were “faulty,” a second social media post dated March 22 said. Additionally, they discovered an issue with communication to the Lake County E-911 Center, according to the post.
“The 911 Center is working on that issue and our vendor will be out Monday morning to fix the issue on our end,” the Highland Police Department post said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
