The Stevensville Town Council voted unanimously on September 10 to accept a $5,000 donation from Cathi Cook on behalf of the Stevensville Soccer Club and proceed with the purchasing of some security cameras to be installed at Lewis and Clark Park. At its most recent meeting on September 24, Council member Raymond Smith and Police Chief James Marble presented two different options for cameras. After hearing both options, the consensus of the Council was to let Cook and, possibly, the Stevensville Civic Club, make that decision and come back with a plan.
The option presented by Smith was estimated to cost from $3,500 to $6,500 for what he called an “expandable system” of cameras that would be connected to electricity already available in the park. He said it would be an all-weather system and the information would be beamed to a large capacity DVR memory system.
Smith said that he walked the site with a security engineer and that he recommended a camera overlooking the whole field from various angles, getting all the soccer nets, the skatepark, the playground, the parking lot and the pool area. He said the high definition cameras would be professionally installed on poles.
Chief Marble said that he had consulted with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. He said they were well versed in the use of game cameras and they recommended using Bushnell game and trail cameras. They are battery-operated devices that can be easily moved around. He said the cameras could be mounted on ten-foot high poles and placed in tamper-proof metal boxes. His plan was to use 10 cameras and cover the playground, skatepark, soccer field, and Father Ravalli Park.
He said the 10 cameras would cost about $2,700 and the poles and hardware about $1,500, for a total cost of $4,200. Battery replacement would be an additional cost.
Smith then said that all the information on both options should be “made available to the individuals that are choosing to be donors for this and let them make the decision whether they would choose to go with a professional installation or with game cameras. I feel like it’s their choice.”
Someone in the public said they had some experience with surveillance systems and that this integrated system that was proposed sounded “awfully cheap” for what they were getting.
Smith said that the installation was being discounted because it was a good cause being funded by citizens.
Former mayor Gene Mim Mack said that it was not clear yet what was really going on. He said that by deciding at the previous meeting to install the cameras, it was inferred that the Town would be doing the hiring if a contractor was needed, but that did not exactly jive with Cook making the decisions and possibly doing the hiring.
Cook said that she assumed that she would do the project and then turn it over to the Town. She said that was how the skatepark