Council discusses park security cameras

Recent vandalism at the Hoerman Memorial Park was discussed at the Feb. 14 Gainesville city council meeting, where city employees say the park’s pavilion lights were recently broken out and signs asking park patrons to clean up their trash were torn down. 

City officials explained that vandalism at the park has been an ongoing and constant issue over the years with damage really adding up.

Damage at the park reported over the years has involved vandals busting off the frost-free water hydrant, pulling out a BBQ grill, damaging the pavilion by trying to remove a pillar of the structure, ripping out electrical outlets and otherwise destroying the park property. 

City maintenance supervisor  Mike Davis, who was unable to attend the meeting but has been dealing with the aftermath of the vandalism, asked Gainesville-based business ComSec Consulting to evaluate the park and see what type of security system would be best there. ComSec Consulting is the firm that the sheriff’s office hired last year to update its electrical components at the jail. 

Brothers Jason and Michael Sponaugle, who own the business, put together a proposed security package that would include three camera kits that would use wifi to send video footage to a server located at City Hall for an estimated $13,550 installed ($7,500 for the three camera kits; $450 for three wifi bridges; $3,600 for server; and $2,000 for installation). They said the server would have 16 licenses and channels, giving the city the option of installing other security cameras in different city-owned locations in the future. 

The brothers said that they are a vendor for MissouriBUYS, a consolidated state bid process which can alleviate the legal requirement municipalities have to put a project out to bid.  

After a discussion, the council decided that because the project would cost so much, they would like to explore their options and accept bids and proposals from other companies for the security camera system.