WOODLAND, Maine — In their search for improved security at the town office and school, Woodland selectmen listened to a presentation from Keith Wilcox of Northern Business Products on Nov. 15 and asked him to return with a quote for a system that focuses on monitoring activity outside both buildings.
The matter was first brought to the board last month when Selectman Tom Drew suggested heavier security for the town-owned properties. While no single incident prompted the security review, there have been complaints about youngsters being in the cemetery near the town office at night and Drew suggested that the town should take “the times we’re living in” seriously.
The board initially voted in October to look at a system from Inlution, a local security system supplier, but then agreed to hear what Northern Business Products had to offer.
On Thursday night, Wilcox initially proposed a sixteen camera system with a 32 channel camera maximum bit rate recording device, as it would give the town the ability to expand the system in the future.
Wilcox later said he would have no problem providing a new quote that primarily features exterior cameras, however, after town officials indicated they wanted to focus on outside activity, which is their major concern.
For the school, they proposed three outside cameras with one attached to a shed behind the building, which would be able to cover most of the activity occurring outside that portion of the building. For the town office, they proposed five exterior cameras as well as one interior camera.
The town requested a 4K resolution camera with the capability of picking up license plate numbers.
Selectman Will Barnum asked if the new system would include a panic button.
Wilcox said the system would still include an alarm system with remote access, and the ability to turn off that alarm, as their current system can sometimes get triggered by innocuous occurrences and needs to be manually disabled.
The Northern Business Products representative told the board members he would return with a quote for the board to consider.
