The DeKalb City Council unanimously approved alarm systems Monday which will warn NIU students against emergency weather conditions.

Currently, the city owns six alarms, but city aldermen said they felt the current alarm system was inadequate due to population shifts. The cost for three additional sirens will be $44,994.

“The sirens will not be installed until about early spring of 1992,” said Roger Chilto, Public Works assistant director.

The sirens will be located in areas currently not covered by the city of DeKalb’s warning system, including NIU west of Annie Glidden Road, downtown DeKalb, and the northwest area around Bethany Road.

“The city will meet with the university personnel to determine the exact position of the sirens,” Chilton said.

“There is a specific level of power needed for each of the sirens,” he said. “We will need to meet with Commonwealth Edison to determine which locations are feasible,” he said.

“The university does not have a weather alarm warning system; they are totally reliant on the city to provide warning to the student community,” said 6th Ward Alderman Jamie Pennington.

In other business, the DeKalb Barb City Manor, a retirement home located at 680 Haish Blvd., requested funds for an additional $60,000 for the removal of safety hazards discovered in the manor’s current remodeling efforts.

“I believe we (the city of DeKalb) own the building, and as I see it, we are obligated as renters to fix the buildings problems,” Pennington said.

Michael Welsh, 2nd Ward alderman, had a different opinion about who should be paying for the improvements. “We are always aiding the DeKalb Barb City Manor,” he said. “Given our fiscal needs and tax payers concerns we need to look closely at the amount of money we lend to them.

“We need to help all the community with the funds that we have but it seems as though the DeKalb Barb City Manor is absorbing a great deal of those funds,” Welsh said.

Welsh asked the council, “Is it (the manor) its own entity or is it a function of DeKalb? You cannot have it both ways.”

“Sometimes we need it both ways. We need exceptions to the rule,” said Bessie Chronopoulos, 5th Ward Alderman.

“Municipalities need to help the very young and the old,” Chronopoulos said. “They deserve to be taken care of.”

“I think we all agree that we just need to make it a cleaner organization,” Welsh said.

The council also unanimously passed resolutions honoring Harold “Red” Johnson, the Sycamore Mayor who passed away Sunday, Oct. 6, and Richard J. Silverman, for 33 years of service as DeKalb’s postmaster.