According to Okmulgee County Emergency Management Director Jeffrey Moore, severe weather sirens should be installed in Morris by April 30. Moore updated the Morris City Council on the sirens during the Council’s regular monthly meeting Tuesday, March 10.

He explained there will be two new sirens and one will be retrofitted with the universal controller that will go into county-wide system. All will be attached to steel poles. Moore went on to say the sirens will go off by a radio data packet as well as a cell phone. “So if for some reason the radio signal doesn’t make the cell phones go out at the same time, they (the sirens) will be automatically set off by the National Weather Service,” he said.

Moore said the sirens will run daily tests, self di‑agnostics, twice a day and will notify Moore of any problems. They will operate via solar-powered bat‑teries, and he added the sirens can blow continu‑ously for up to 30 minutes, if necessary.

He said the sirens are scheduled to arrive at a ven‑dor in Oklahoma City by April 3 and the vendor will make sure everything is connected, and will mount them on the poles. The sirens will then be delivered and installed in Morris, probably by April 15, but Moore said no later than April 30.

Moore went on to share all six sirens he request‑ed were approved. He said one each is going to the schools in Preston, Wilson and Twin Hills, along with one going near County Barn #1, which covers Beggs which has no active sirens.

Moore pointed out his office recently launched a mass notification system in the county. “There’s a 24/7 situational awareness map you can look at on our website,” Moore said when talking about Ge‑nasys Protect Alert System. It is a multi-channel communication solution that can send notifications about severe weather, tornadoes, floods, gas leaks or electric outages, etc. He said in addition to the link on the website, he suggested including program in‑formation in city water bills.

In other action, bids from A-1 Lawn Care for mowing the Morris Cemetery and baling hay/ brush-hogging the cemetery, Morris Lake area and specified city properties were accepted at $1,500 and $575 per month respectively with the option to ex‑tend one year at a time. Owner Bryan Watts assured the council he would obtain his commercial spray license as required. The council approved adopting the Citizen Participation Plan for 2026 CDBG En‑gineering application and Resolution 26-01 to apply for 2026 CDBG Engineering application as required by Oklahoma Department of Commerce for CDBG applications.

Police Chief Kenny Boyd reported on the hiring of two new reserve officers, and Fire Chief Tim Stewart reported there was one brush fire and 10 grass fires during February.