By Daniel Pye<br><a href="mailto:pyed@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Dan</a>
The second round of funding for upgrades to the town clerk’s office was approved Monday, but one councilman believes the cost is too high.
Town Clerk Melissa Brinson said the first expenditure of $12,000 covered the cost of splitting the office into two parts — a necessary step toward allowing the town to issue passports. While other communities provide the service without such a separation, the clerk said those places were grandfathered in under a set of rules written before the restrictions put in place after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“We had to have a physical separation between the passport section and the registrar of vital statistics,” Brinson said. “Essentially they don’t like the idea of us issuing birth certificates right next to where people can use the birth certificate to apply for the passport.”
But now that those improvements are nearing completion, the Town Board was asked for another $20,000 to upgrade the office’s security measures. That would include installing security cameras and raising the counters to prevent people from jumping over them. For Councilman John Bargnesi, the price tag was too high.
“The original presentation was for the passport office, to add income to the town and add services to the town,” Bargnesi said. “But for $20,000 more, that would have to be a lot of passports.”
Brinson said even though these new improvements will bulk up security for the passport section as well, the real driving force behind the upgrade is maintaining the safety of staff and protecting the money being collected in the office. With tensions running high as people pay their taxes in tough economic times, the clerk said things can turn hostile very quickly.
“People get very, very nasty with government offices,” Brinson said. “Yesterday we had someone say, ‘This is why people fly planes into government buildings.’ Before that, one man said he was a ticking time bomb.”
Down the hall, offices for the Village of Kenmore already have cameras even though they don’t handle tax collection. Brinson said the higher counters will keep people from being able to reach over and grab money from employees and cameras will provide useful identification to police if anyone gets out of line.
But Bargnesi said the associated cost is too high at a time when the town is supposed to be generating revenue instead of creating expenses.
“I wasn’t even crazy about it in the beginning,” Bargnesi said. “It’s just too much money.”
The rest of the board disagreed, approving the $20,000 expenditure.
Contact reporter Daniel Pye at 693-1000, ext. 158.
