EYES ON WEST UNION PROJECT
Final
Report – Jan. 30, 2009
Has the
grant made a difference in the quality of services or effectiveness?
Yes,
the Grant has enabled us to foster more pride in our community, and provide
better security to our neighborhood. It
has inspired community cooperation and sparked interest in the future among our
citizens who were becoming (quite rightly) apathetic due to lack of
options. Usage of the West Union City
Park and the Rail Trail has been significantly up despite the harsh winter we
are experiencing.
Long-term,
the grant has most definitely enabled us to purchase a better quality of
network backbone equipment allowing for a robust expansion of the video system
in the future. That expansion will require input devices only; little
additional network equipment will be needed for local (in town) extensions of
coverage.
If
so in what ways?
We
will be able to expand the network to more remote locations, such as the county
park, which would have been out of the question with the original pre-grant
funding.
If not
what obstacles limited your work?
It’s
possible this should be marked “N/A”. We
encountered so many obstacles of such massive proportions that we decided to
take turns feeling bleak. There were
many inspirational vignettes, however.
- When the Fire
Department’s equipment could not reach high enough on the pole chosen for
mounting the park camera, and no one had a bucket available, HREA came to
our rescue with the donation of equipment and manpower to mount it. HREA does not even service the Town –
this was ‘giving back’ at its finest.
- When the
signal was not being received at Town Hall, Monte Tremont of West Union Enterprises, found a temporary location for the camera
and re-programmed it so that the camera could be operative while waiting
for our repeater installation.
- Despite water
break emergencies and their regular work-schedules, the town maintenance
men tried to get the backhoe up the steep
water-tower hill to dig our trench to bury cable. When that didn’t work, they hand dug it.
- Alan White,
electrician, with one helper, climbed the Water Tower in near zero
temperatures, high winds, while it was snowing – and worked up there for
over an hour installing our repeater.
- When the
signal was still not being received at Town Hall, Monte Tremont of West
Union Enterprises supervised installation of an antenna on the Town Hall
building. In order to reconfigure
the IP Address, Dr. and Mrs. Kirkwood agreed to connect to the Town’s
Wi-Fi (“Knock, Knock… Who’s There?” Grant) so
that we could have temporary Internet access for remote access by the
manufacturer of the camera. (Arranged by M. Tremont.)
Our
plan is to place the video feed from the camera(s) on the internet. Our problem is that Town Hall does not have
internet access. Verizon’s service in
the county is inadequate and sub-standard to the point of being shabby. Average repair commitment from Verizon is one
to two weeks. We have had Town Hall and
County Commission meetings with John Golden of Verizon. We have made over 30 telephone calls to, and
had one meeting with Terry Smarr of Fibernet.
We have been in communication with Angelia Henline regarding possible
Shentel Cable Internet to the county.
These options look promising, but are certainly no immediate solution
and it will be later in 2009 before we even know what will be viable for us, as
the decisions are in others’ hands.
Short of raising enough money for our own T3, the option of placing the
feed online is now tabled until fall of 2009.
What
impact did the grant have on the population served?
Awareness
of the camera system, even before it sent its first pictures, may have kept
vandalism and other unsavory activities to a minimum at the Town
Park/Playground. Perception of security
increased the use of our public areas prior to its being online. The fact that the Park and Rail Trail saw
more use would statistically also have deterred mischief. For the most part, the population of West
Union is simply proud to have a camera.
During the course
of the project, did anything happen that was different from what you expected?
When
buying "packaged systems" we will now pay more attention to the
provided accessories. These low cost items tend to be of inferior quality or
held to a lesser specification standard than when purchased separately. Among
these items are antennae and RF cabling to support the antennas.
Our
first electrician (for the actual camera installation) overcharged and was
difficult to communicate with. The
overcharge was our fault, as we did not have details listed in the estimate.
How will the
lessons you learned change your future thinking, performance or services?
In
the future, accessory items such as antennas, equipment mounting fixtures and
wire/cabling will be separately sourced to match the quality of the network
equipment that they will support.
A
project plan will be issued to each contractor that we need to bid on the
project.
It’s
possible, we may not schedule anything for
winter…
Financial
Report
|
Budget expenses |
Actual expenses |
Difference |
|
(This budget does
not reflect approximately $3,700.00 of man-hours donated by West Union
Enterprises, HREA, Town Council Members, and local individuals) |
||
|
Main
Camera complete with transmitter, receiver, housing w/heater / fan, hardware,
PC interface and software $3,700.00 |
The
system we settled on, has only one camera, but includes the infrastructure to
add three more cameras and provides complete Internet access. It is a
wireless data backbone system that is capable of 4 cameras total. The package
total is $6,293.50. |
$2,593.50 |
|
Main
Street camera #1 complete as above less receiver and PC I & S $1,200.00 |
No
longer necessary - $0.00 |
($1,200.00) |
|
Main
Street camera #2 complete as above less receiver and PC I & S $1,200.00 |
Temporarily
Tabled - $0.00 |
($1,200.00) |
|
Server
PC and ancillary devices for broadband video, complete $1,200.00 |
Temporarily
Tabled (est 8/09 connection): Unable to get DSL service provided to Town Hall
at present time - $0.00 |
($1,200.00) |
|
Installation,
misc., data components, wiring extensions, power fixtures $1,000.00 |
Prior
Actual cost: $122.08 for supplies
and $275.00 for labor; Additional
Cost $2,000.00, electrician charge for stage 2
installation @ Water Tower; Additional Cost $160.00 Town Payroll for preparation for electrician (ditch for
laying of cable); Additional Cost for cable replacements and connectors
upgrades $127.00; = Total: $2,684.08 |
$1,684.08 |
|
TOTALS: $8,300.00 |
$8,977.58 |
$940.58 |
Tell us a how this
project addressed the problem identified by your organization or group and how
the technology was implemented to resolve the problem in a news release format. (This will
actually be sent to local,
regional, and state media). Limited
to two or three paragraphs.
“Eyes On
West Union”
The Town
of West Union is proud to announce live, continuous video security camera
coverage of the West Union City Park and that portion of the Rail Trail!
Wireless
Broadband technology is being used to collect the video camera feed, via the
Internet, at West Union Town Hall at our video server computer. At that point
they are formatted and made available to Public Safety personnel and Town Watch
participants.
Negotiations
are ongoing to make this video available to the general public through a dedicated
Internet Web site. The hold-up here is the provision of Internet access
to Town Hall. Estimated completion is Fall of 2009. An
exciting feature of this system: the wireless laptop now installed in the town
police cruiser and eventually in all Sheriff’s Dept. vehicles, will be able to
view and control the cameras from their vehicles with the Internet connection.
This will enable them to virtually be in more than one place at a time, vastly
increasing their ability to keep an eye on potential trouble spots. Home
viewers on the Internet will be able to view the scenes, but will have no
control over focusing functions. Police and registered personnel will be able
to block distribution to the general public of any camera feed, while
maintaining their own recording and control.
The web
server allows for different levels of observation and interaction and also
records the camera stream for use as evidence and as an identification
tool. For example, only Police personnel and registered Town Watch
volunteers will have access to the remotely controlled pan/tilt/zoom options of
the cameras. In addition the wireless laptop now installed in the town police
cruiser and eventually in all Sheriff’s Dept. vehicles, will be able to view
and control the cameras from their vehicles. This will enable them to virtually
be in more than one place at a time, vastly increasing their ability to keep an
eye on potential trouble spots. Home viewers on the internet will be able to
view the scenes from all cameras but will have no control over their coverage
functions. Police and registered personnel will be able to block distribution
to the general public of any camera feed, while maintaining their own recording
and control. We believe this will deter abuse of the system being used for
pecuniary interests. With this system in place, we expect to see vandalism
disappear and street safety increase to the levels we expect in this otherwise
serene and peaceful town. We feel just having the system in place will be the
biggest deterrent and that discovery, arrests and convictions will be minimal.