Monticello City Council Discusses Parks, Flock Cameras, DDA, More

The Monticello City Council met for a called meeting last Thursday, and during the meeting adopted new, revised park rules and procedures.

The new policy features several items not on the previous policy. Now, if an event is cancelled due to a violation that applicant will not be allowed to reserve any park for six months.

In addition, now the city is requiring party hosts to provides security if more than 75 people will be in attendance.

In addition, all community events where the general public is welcome are required to have a general event liability insurance policy. The city of Monticello will need to be named on the policy as well. The minimum coverage amount for the liability insurance policy is $1 million. The policy must also be in the applicant’s name.

Next, council members heard from Roberta Anderson with the Get Ahead House on its budget request. She said she’d like to get additional monies, but understands that’s not likely so would like the same amount as past years which is $5,000 monthly for an annual funding of $60,000.

After that Mayor DeAshley Thurman, Mayor Pro-tem Doug Currie, and Council members Cynthia Miller, Jenny Murphy and David Wease heard from Jackie Garland, executive director for the Downtown Development Authority (DDA)and Daniel Jeffries, treasurer for DDA, whose budget request was on the agenda for the evening.

Ms. Garland spoke first reviewing the highlights of the year, including movie nights and concert nights, putting banners and flowers around the Square, the mural project, and more.

She then turned it over to Mr. Jeffries. Virtually all council members and Mr. Jeffries discussed pros and cons of the DDA, how it is supposed to function according to city officials, and how it is supposed to function according to DDA members.

During much back and forth between city leaders and Mr. Jeffries, there was a discussion of expenses experienced by the DDA, as well as discussion of the services of DDA. At one point, Mr. Jeffries said that DDA “wanted our town to do something…There is nothing to do in this town.” Mayor Pro-tem Currie said that DDA wants to help build the community, they’re there to help not hinder, and the DDA wants to see Monticello prosper.

He talked about the benefit of having things to do. As the discussion several times became heated, and all council members were voicing their opinions the two entities agreed that they need to meet again. They talked of having a work session with the city leaders and DDA members which City Manager Lathaydra Sands will set up for council.

The last thing on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting was a request from Sheriff Donnie Pope for the city to “consider adding the expense of eight Flock cameras to your next budgeting cycle.”

Flock cameras are solar powered stand alone license plate readers. There are already several in the county. These cameras document vehicle information and store it in cloud-based software for several months. The information can be viewed by local law enforcement as well as any other law enforcement agency in the country that is given access.

In his written request, the sheriff reported that these cameras are purchased by individuals, homeowner associations, local governments and law enforcement agencies and access to view the camera is granted by the contract holder.

The annual cost of the cameras is $3,000 per unit per year, with an initial one-time installation fee of $650/unit. Flock maintains them if damaged, and is responsible for the unit itself. There are no hidden fees or additional costs, said the report from the sheriff.

Over the last two years the Flock network and the eight Flock cameras the county currently have in use have assisted in solving a wide range of cases, including burglaries, robberies, homicides, arson, insurance fraud, car thefts, traffic accidents, and various other crimes for our local Jasper County investigators as well as surrounding agencies and law enforcement throughout the southeast. Flock cameras, over the last few years, have proven to reduce crime and make communities safer.

The sheriff is requesting eight sites in the city. The cameras would face out of the city, capturing traffic leaving the city limits of Monticello, he proposes.

These locations have been selected carefully to be put in place, in these specific locations to protect the citizens and businesses that serve our community, said the sheriff.