BEACON FALLS — The Pent Road Recreation Complex will remain under manual surveillance for the time being.
The complex was vandalized twice last August. The vandals did more than $4,500 worth of damage and stole baseball equipment from the Robert A. Cole Little League, which stored its equipment at the complex.
Following the vandalism, the town considered putting security cameras around the complex in order to deter future vandalism. However, town officials have deemed the cameras to be more expensive than the amount of crimes at the park warranted.
According to First Selectman Christopher Bielik, it would have cost the town approximately $20,000 to install enough cameras to give adequate coverage at the park.
“It’s certainly something that, as an immediate fix, is beyond our means to do in the current budget,” Bielik said.
Parks and Recreation Chairman Steven Ruhl echoed Bielik’s statements, saying the security of having the cameras in place did not warrant the price of purchasing and installing them. He said police are now patrolling the complex more frequently.
While the cameras were too expensive for the current budget, Bielik did not dismiss the idea of looking into the possibility of putting money for them into the 2015-16 budget.
“We are looking ahead towards this coming fiscal year to see if there’ll be an opportunity to revisit that and put the cameras in as a capital project,” Bielik said.
As for the two acts of vandalism that started the discussion on adding security cameras, the cases remain under investigation.
“We’ve never gotten a firm lead that has led us to any positive resolution. Not that we’ve given up hope, we just haven’t gotten any information,” Bielik said.
