HOLYOKE, MA (WGGB/WSHM) -- For decades, every Friday at noon, a siren told Holyoke exactly what time it was. Then, weeks ago, silence fell upon the city. On Friday, the siren sounded again and the community that refused to stay quiet made it happen.

The siren is a World War II-era air raid horn. In the 1980s, the owner of The Wherehouse took it off a shuttered Holyoke firehouse on one condition: that they could keep it sounding. For decades, it did, every Friday at noon. However, a noise ordinance complaint forced the city to issue a cease-and-desist letter, bringing the weekly tradition to a sudden halt.

Holyoke didn’t stay quiet for long. Residents gathered by the dozens in a parking lot every Friday at noon to honk their car horns in protest. They also sold over 600 T-shirts to show their support.

The outpouring reached City Hall. At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, the siren was the first order of business. Councilors Patti Devine, Mike Sullivan, and Meg McGrath Smith drafted the new ordinance language. The council voted 12-0 to pass it and Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia signed it into law Wednesday.

The new ordinance carves out a specific exemption - just for this siren - allowing it to sound every Friday at noon for two minutes. “What it means is that the siren, by itself, it’s not related to the noise ordinance. It’s all by itself, so it can go off every Friday for two minutes. Just that,” said Holyoke At-Large City Councilor Patti Devine.

For lifelong Holyoke resident Jordan Lemieux, a retired firefighter who has called the city home for 68 years, Friday was personal. “I’ve heard this every Friday at noon time since I can remember. I’m 68. I’ve been here 68 years...grammar school and all that during the Vietnam War and the Cold War. You have to hide under your desk. What it did, we never know,” Lemieux said.

Lemieux added silencing the siren felt like erasing a piece of the city itself. “It’s a part of Holyoke’s history. You just take it away. It’s like taking away part of history, so it’s great having it back,” he explained.

Devine said 99 percent of the community feedback she heard was in favor of bringing the siren back - from phone calls, to Facebook, to the crowd that showed up Friday morning.

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