The Town of Yacolt will soon install 26 security cameras throughout the town, including parks, as officials take steps to improve public safety and reduce expenses to town coffers.
Yacolt Mayor Ian Shealy said, in addition to parks, the security cameras will be installed at a key intersection. Phase one will include cameras being installed at Town Hall, Central Park and the town reader board at the intersection of West Yacolt Road and North Amboy Avenue. Shealy said he hopes the cameras are operable by the end of February.
“Mainly, we’ve gotten lots of complaints over the years from citizens about traffic issues, about vandalism, about people taking their vehicles or dirt bikes onto private and public property and tearing up people’s landscaping or hitting fences, things like that,” Shealy said. “There’s a lot of speeding and stop signs that get blown through town, so traffic safety is a problem.”
As officials work to find a way to fund additional law enforcement within town limits, the security camera system is the best option for what Shealy referred to as a “first line of defense.”
He said the Clark County Sheriff’s Office said deputies can’t act on anything unless they have video proof, and the town wants to make sure that the areas where kids are present are at least monitored by camera to deter bad behavior.
The town currently pays upward of $3,000 each month for vandalism at its town parks, Shealy said. To help deter that, not only will Central Park receive cameras, so will the skate park and Recreation Park, as part of phases two and three.
“Right now for phase two and three to happen, we have to make sure that we have WiFi there so that we can remotely access the systems,” Shealy said. “The three different locations are going to be on their own servers.”
Town staff will install the cameras themselves, Shealy said. The cameras facing roadways are going to be 4K resolution and 360 degrees, with the ability to follow and zoom in when remotely accessed. In the parks, the town will install 2K resolution cameras, which Shealy ensured will be high-quality video, as well.
“The ones that are at the intersection in town are the 4K ones that can also pick up license plate numbers in the event that there’s a traffic incident or something like that,” Shealy said.
To increase public safety, Shealy believes the town will eventually ask residents to approve a levy because the town draws in little revenue and has few avenues to gain those funds. He said that taxes, such as a levy in the manner that fire departments seek, is the only real way for the town to get additional law enforcement resources.
“Nobody really likes tax increases, but it is a significant need, and we want to take it to the people first, but I need a proposal from the sheriff first,” he said.
In addition to the other improvements, at Recreation Park, night-time parkgoers who kick up the gravel in the parking lot will no longer be able to do so. Gates and fencing will be added, fully enclosing the parking lot and preventing people from tearing up the parking lot and wrecking things, Shealy said.
