Towne Lake Garden Association

I noticed 2 vehicles with poles and such at the gate today. One of them had a sticker "Smittys Surveillance". Did we in fact order cameras for the gate? I know we talked about it but I don't remember action being taken.

I do hope we are making security improvements!!

I believe if the meeting minutes were ever to be posted it would show that we, the homeowners decided that we would not waste our money on the cameras. One again it shows how the board members disregard the homeowners views and opinions.

How is the installation of the cameras going to curb the few instances of vandalism, and or burglaries in the neighborhood? The safety officer that attended the meeting indicated that we only had a handful of incidences as compared to other neighborhoods, which he was surprised to find.

So now that the board members decided to waste our money, how do they propose to act on any acts of vandalism within our community? Can we prosecute anyone for an act of vandalism and or burglary which may occur out of sight of the cameras? I would like to hear specifics if they can offer some on how this could be done.

Just because someone peeps over your yard does that mean the entire community has to pay for and maintain a video camera? Call 911.

Are the board members going to post how much the entire cost of the installation of the cameras going to cost us, initial and monthly cost.

Who is going to monitor this and how often?

Is the problem monitoring who comes in and out of our community? If so, then we as a community need rethink our entry gate access system. The gate just does not work. Rather than spending money on a surveillance system the board members should have considered replacing the gate with a new one. If you are thinking right at what expense, well we just paid thousands of dollars for our streets. If we can do that, then we can spend money on a gate that works.

Thanks Ed, and Rick for listening to us the homeowners, and wasting our money.

Was it the decision of all the board members to install the surveillance camera, or the actions of just one? If all board members were not involved in this decision, then there is something fundamentally wrong.

The act of moving on an issue should be consulted by ALL board members, and not just one or two. Shame on you, and shame on us for letting this happen.

The cameras themselves are cheap. Anyone can buy those type cameras on eBay for $60 bucks each. There should not be a monthly cost if it is set up right, the video should be fed into a DVR and it can be reviewed upon incident.

I have a 4 camera system set up at my house and I can record about a month at a time.

The problems I see thus far are:

The cameras are cheap and will not wistand the abuse they are going to take, IE rocks being thrown at them.

They are too low, I could rip them off.

The conduit protecting the wires leading into the pipes are plastic, they should have used metal conduit so that a knife cannot cut the wires.

And finally the poles are flimsy. I could easily rock them out of there location and drive off with the whole set up.

We should have used a better set up as mark my word we will be having to replace this stuff and repair it often because of the shabby and cheap installation.

Will they help? To deter, yes, to stop crimes, no... Again, I am for spending the money, and I want us to have cameras and improved security, but lets do it the right way!!