Mayor suggests use of cameras on Mineral Avenue

With two separate incidents involving vandals breaking glass in the community over the past year, Libby Mayor Doug Roll is looking into the possibility of installing surveillance cameras on each end of Mineral Avenue.

Roll has not yet met with Mineral Avenue business owners for feedback on the idea but did bring it up on Wednesday during the mayor’s annual “State of the City” address at the Libby Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

“We could try using traffic cameras that can pick out faces – even in the dark,” Roll said. “It would go into the police station or to a laptop … the system is wireless.”

Mineral Avenue includes businesses that were hit particularly hard during window-breaking crime sprees in April and November.

Whitefish has such a system in place and Roll said Libby police chief Jim Smith will be headed to that community to learn more. Roll said the cameras on each end of Mineral would be able to cover the entire stretch from Highway 2 to the train depot.

“It would be able to pick up license plate numbers halfway down (the street),” he said.

Of course, one of the big issues involving the idea revolves around money. Roll said the cameras would cost in the $40,000 to $70,000 range – depending on the quality of the system. He suggested one-third to be paid by the city, one-third by Lincoln County and one-third by downtown businesses.

Roll also said the county may want to talk further about their ideas for surveillance cameras – possibly putting one in at the courthouse on California Avenue.

One business owner in attendance at the chamber meeting told Roll that she just wouldn’t be able to afford to pitch in. Roll said more work needs to be done on how to finance the system, including grants that might be available to help cover the costs.

Roll said the out-of-pocket expense to business owners from the two window-breaking incidents were substantial in some cases. One merchant had to personally pay about $7,000 because it was not included in the business’s insurance policy.

But one of the biggest reasons for the surveillance camera need is to help out the resource-limited police department. The city has serious challenges getting such areas patrolled at all hours of the day. In addition, Roll said an officer may be on another call across town when a crime on Mineral Avenue is committed – which was the case during one of the window-breaking incidents.

The mayor expected to learn more about the system in the coming days and said he plans to contact downtown business owners about sitting down for a meeting.