Big Brother coming to City Center Park
The city's police surveillance network will expand to include City Center Park and possibly other Downtown Lakewood locations. Cameras at Madison Park, like the one pictured above, have been credited with catching criminals red-handed.
Quick, make a list of the top three areas in the city that might benefit from the installation of police surveillance cameras.
Is City Center Park (formerly Sinagra Park) or Downtown Lakewood on your list? Probably not.
Well, Lakewood Police Chief Timothy Malley believes otherwise. He told Lakewood City Council on Monday that he expects to utilize a $20,000 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant to place surveillance cameras in City Center Park and the downtown district. He was uncertain how many cameras the grant would cover, and hinted at a possible public-private partnership to fund acquisition of additional cameras as needed.
Malley pointed to the effectiveness of the security camera array at Madison Park, noting that just prior to the council meeting three juveniles had been caught smoking an illegal substance near the pool after being spotted on camera.
Euclid ($34,000), Garfield Hts. ($24,000) and Parma ($21,000) are the other suburbs receiving federal grant money. Garfield Hts. will spend its share to acquire equipment for their detective unit. Euclid and Parma expect to put their money toward a regional computer aided dispatch (CAD) system in partnership with Cleveland to increase information sharing and cross-agency communication. See the grant application (.PDF).
Is Lakewood putting its $20,000 to the best possible use? Council thought so, unanimously approving Malley’s request without any critical debate.
Dog park lawsuit update
Several members of the citizens group overseeing Lakewood’s dog park were present to read testimonials of support regarding their three-year-old conflict with the City of Rocky River and some of its residents over the park’s noise level.
The lawsuit is set for trial on July 8th, but there are efforts to avert it. ”We are trying to settle it,” said Mayor Edward O. FitzGerald, who has been in discussions with Rocky River’s mayor and the case’s presiding judge — each of whom want to find a compromise and avoid trial.
FitzGerald said a key portion of the conversations revolve around how best to mitigate noise generated by the dog park and who should pay for it. He said Rocky River’s mayor has taken the position that if the noise problem can’t be abated, then the park must permanently close.
If the sentiments expressed in prior news accounts of the situation still hold true, the four Rocky River residents who are co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit might force a courtroom trial by taking a hardline approach against any pretrial compromise that keeps the dog park open.
“We’re preparing for both eventualities,” said FitzGerald, and mentioned that Rocky River’s assistant law director has a “very long list” of people to depose.
One Lakewood city employee who empathizes with the folks who reside within barking distance of the park was recently heard to say half-jokingly, ”If I lived on the ridge, I’d want to kill everyone” because of the continuous, but not necessarily loud barking.
Solar special improvement district
Lakewood is working with several other inner-ring suburbs and the City of Cleveland to create a program to provide low-cost financing to residents who want to add solar technology to their homes.
Councilperson Thomas Bullock (Ward 2) introduced legislation that would allow the city to participate in the program.
Basically, the cities are getting together to form a special improvement district (SID) which will allow their residents to access affordable financing backed by the Port of Cleveland for solar-related projects.
So, say you purchase a $40,000 solar panel system to power your home. Federal and state incentives and rebates might knock your actual out-of-pocket cost down to $12,000. By participating in the solar SID, you can borrow the money at a low interest rate and pay it back over as many as 25 years as an add-on to your property tax bill.
There lots of other details, but that’s the gist of it. It’s an interesting program, although it’s hard to predict what kind of success it will have. The politicians already love it. Its green-ness is tailor-made for their glossy campaign material. Mayor FitzGerald, for one, was particularly effusive with praise:
“I think this is really important.”
“It has enormous, enormous potential.”
“It helps brand Lakewood as an innovative community.”
Sell, sell, sell
Council gave unanimous approval to an ordinance permitting the director of planning and development to sell the city-owned properties at 1667 Waterbury, 2070 Dowd, 2107 Robin, 1482-84 West 117th, 13736 Madison, 1301 Cranford, 1297 Cranford, 1269 Westlake, 1598 Wyandotte, and 1383 Sloane. Some of these properties will be rehabbed, others will be demolished.
True to their modus operandi, there was no discussion on the subject, nor was there a single question posed when the topic came up at the Housing Committee meeting when Monique Smith (At-Large), Mary Louise Madigan (Ward 4), and Michael Summers (Ward 3) were in attendance.
$3 bike helmets available at upcoming bike rodeo
Director of Human Services Dorothy Buckon announced that bicycle helmets costing just $3 will be available for sale to young Lakewood residents between the ages of 6 and 10 years old at the June 12th bike rodeo scheduled to take place at Madison Park.
Council gave permission to Chief Malley to donate 10 bicycles from the police property room to be used as prizes at the event.
Liquor license transfers
The city hasn’t been afraid to raise statutory objections to liquor license transfers when businesses behave badly.
A couple of months ago, for instance, it tried to block a transfer at the Richland Cafe. The cafe had a gambling machine despite being told it was illegal and had to be removed. The city dropped the objection after management at the cafe signed an agreement promising it would cut out the funny business. See a copy of the agreement (.PDF).
More recently at their May 17th meeting, they voted to object to a transfer at China Gardens because one of their employees had an extensive rap sheet that included cocaine trafficking from the restaurant.
Council didn’t take action at their Monday meeting on transfers for either Deagan’s Kitchen and Bar (opening in the First Federal of Lakewood building, where Crazy Rita’s once was) or Put-In-Bay Lakewood because the police and law departments were still in the process of conducting their reviews. It will be interesting to see if Put-In-Bay slips through without an objection. They’ve had more than a few issues there in the last year.
The council meeting lasted a little over an hour and a half, and was attended by about 25 people. To see what else was discussed, check out the docket (.PDF).
Tags: