Tompkins Curiosities: Why does the village of Dryden still have an emergency siren?

Q. Why does the village of Dryden still need an emergency siren? It’s loud, and it seems to go off quite frequently. 
According to the mayor, that siren you hear go off regularly in the village is necessary to alert firefighters and other responders during serious emergencies that rise to a higher level of response that extends beyond just the Neptune Hose Company, Dryden’s volunteer fire department.

Why not just use other communication devices?
“Most of our calls are done with cell phones and pagers, but at times when it’s critical, it has to go off because we need all the help we can get, and other people need to be aware of it,” Murphy said, adding that not all of Dryden’s volunteer firefighters can respond to every call; the presence of the alarm lets them know that they should drop everything to prioritize the call if at all possible, even if they are not on call.

Where it’s located:
The siren is at the Dryden Village Town Hall, 16 South St. 

The testing schedule:
It goes off every Saturday at noon.

Why is it tested weekly? 
The siren is tested to ensure its functionality, and village officials decided that weekly tests are ideal; if the tests were less frequent, the public would be less likely to remember when they occur, leading to more confusion about whether it is just a test or an actual emergency. The tests have been scaled back over time, as decades ago the siren was tested daily, the mayor said. 

What kinds of events trigger the siren?
While the majority of the time the alarm goes off due to a fire, the siren will go off with a unique-sounding alarm if the Virgil Creek dam about five miles away is breached. The village has experienced flooding numerous times in its history, and the dam holds back a lot of water, Murphy said.