After incidents of vandalism in the past, the town of Skaneateles will be setting up four security cameras in Austin Park this year.
The Town Board voted to approve an expenditure of no more than $1,000 for the camera system at its April 17 meeting.
The proposal for the cameras was recommended to the board by the town’s safety committee and the parks department. Per the safety committee’s recommendation, the town had recently purchased automated external defibrillators for a number of town-owned buildings. That purchase came in under budget, leaving money available for the camera purchase, said Sue Murphy, of the town parks department.
There will be four cameras installed at the Sims building, two monitoring the doors to the bathrooms, which were vandalized last year, and two pointing elsewhere. The cameras are small and hopefully residents won’t even be aware that they are there, Murphy said.
Parks employee Gene LaForte offered a slightly different perspective: “It’s a crime deterrent,” he said.
The cameras will record to tape on a closed-circuit system. The tapes will only be monitored if there is an incident in the park and the town will work in cooperation with the village police, who are in the loop about the cameras, Murphy said.
The installation will be done by LaForte and resident Tom Corona, who will be paid by the town, but has assured them that the total cost will not exceed $1,000.
Last summer, the Sims building bathrooms were repeatedly vandalized, forcing the town to lock them for the remainder of the season. Councilor Jim Greenfield made the announcement at the board’s June 20, 2013 meeting, when he said that the vandalism was “disgusting.”
In other business:
–Supervisor Mary Sennett said that she is looking for a naturalist in the community who can help the town conduct an inventory of all ash trees on town roads and in town right of ways. Many ash trees in the region have become victims of emerald ash borers, an invasive species of beetle that infests and kills the trees. The town, therefore, wants to have a plan in place to deal with these pests, Sennett said.
–Following a public hearing the board voted to pass a local law changing the town’s property tax grievance day, due to a conflict with the assessor’s schedule. The grievance day will now be the first Tuesday in June, rather than the fourth Tuesday in May.
–The board voted to approve a transfer of $21,500 from the general recreation reserve fund to purchase a new pickup truck for the parks department. The purchase will be from Dave Pirro Ford, but through a state bid program, which gives the town a considerable discount, LaForte said. The town had budgeted $23,000 for the new truck, he said.
Joe Genco is the editor of the Skaneateles Press He can be reached at [email protected].
