The city of Cape Girardeau unveiled its first outdoor warning siren Tuesday, sounding the alarm in Arena Park for about 30 seconds as city officials and civic leaders looked on.

The siren near the tennis courts in the city park is the first tornado warning siren to be erected in the city's new Adopt-A-Siren program in which local organizations or corporations are encouraged to pay for a siren.

The SEMO District Fair Association purchased the first siren. The cost of the siren and its installation was about $20,000, officials said.

"The safety of our fairgoers is a priority for us," said Pete Poe, president of the fair association. The annual fair is held in Arena Park.

But the siren can be heard within a 1 1/2-mile radius, which means the warning could carry as far as Clippard Elementary School and Alma Schrader School, and be heard by motorists on Kingshighway, Poe said.

Until now, the city hasn't had any permanent warning siren of its own.

Mayor Jay Knudtson said the council had grappled with how to pay for a warning system. "There was just no way we could absorb the expenses within the perimeters of the budget we have to work with," he said.

In the end, city officials decided the best approach would be to put a system in place one siren at a time with private donations.

The city would like to erect six to eight sirens near city parks, where people congregate outdoors for ballgames and other recreation.

The mayor said he realizes that the warning siren is just the first step in an effort to warn residents of the threat of an approaching tornado.

"We don't need to feel as though we have the problem solved," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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