There\u2019s no reason to be alarmed, even if the building is.<\/p>\n
This week, the managers of Juneau\u2019s federal building have begun a three-week test of the building\u2019s emergency alarms, causing a ruckus that has upset residents of the neighborhood surrounding the building and led to calls to the Juneau Police Department and Capital City Fire\/Rescue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe flats families neighborhood association supports the local federal workers \u2026 but to have loud noises going on throughout the night that make it difficult for people to sleep is just not acceptable,\u201d said Meilani Schijvens, who lives near the building and has documented the alarm tests on Facebook.<\/p>\n
Sally Mayberry, a spokeswoman with the General Services Administration \u2014 which oversees federal buildings across the country \u2014 said the GSA is aware of the complaints and has already begun changing its tests.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are trying to minimize the alarm by shortening the bursts of it between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m.,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019ve also shut down the exterior bells.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the alarm \u2014 which sounds an air-raid-like siren and flashes bright lights \u2014 is particularly noticeable in Juneau\u2019s dark winter nights. One Empire journalist recorded the alarm for several minutes at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday from the entrance of Foodland IGA two blocks away.<\/p>\n
\u201cGSA\u2019s trying to minimize as much as they can the impact,\u201d Mayberry said.<\/p>\n
Building employees must test each of the \u201c700-800 devices\u201d within the building, which is why the alarm bells will be sounding each night for three weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have to do it when the facility is empty,\u201d Mayberry said, which is why the tests are done at night.<\/p>\n
Testing began this week but will not take place next week due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll resume testing Nov. 30,\u201d Mayberry said, and testing should be complete no later than Dec. 11.<\/p>\n
Mayberry said the testing is a safety issue, and GSA wants to be good neighbors, even if the alarm is annoying right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to cause a ruckus,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s no reason to be alarmed, even if the building is. This week, the managers of Juneau\u2019s federal building have begun a three-week test of the building\u2019s emergency alarms, causing a ruckus that has upset residents of the neighborhood surrounding the building and led to calls to the Juneau Police Department and Capital City Fire\/Rescue. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2912"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}