There’s another addition to the Bridgeport Recreation Complex. And this one is probably good news for most people and really bad news for a few others.

 

At Monday’s Bridgeport City Council meeting, City Manager Kim Haws told the city’s governing body of the latest addition to the complex. Haws said the addition is focused on making sure the complex is a secure place for everyone that attends there and also protects the property when not in use – at all hours.

 

“We’ve added more cameras for security purposes to the facility,” said Haws. “We’ve had some previous problems with previous cameras and felt we needed to upgrade them in order to get a better result from them if we needed to garner images or information from them.”

 

Haws emphasized that there isn’t a rash of crime or criminal activity at the facility. However, for issues in the past – for things such as a hit and run in the parking – the images weren’t always of high quality to allow for a vehicle to be properly identified.

 

“The first thing that is important is to provide a better level of protection for our citizens at any city venue,” said Council member Diana Marra. “The complex is such a busy facility with so much traffic up there that the cameras will aid the city to respond to any incident that may occur.

 

“The good news is that we don’t have many incidents up there,” she continued. “At the same time we want to stand ready to respond if we do and these new cameras should allow us to do that. It’s prudent to have that level of security up there when you have that level of investment of city dollars in that facility.”

 

The city will have 10 cameras at the facility, but not all of them are new. Half of the total will be of the new variety to help provide coverage to the Rec Complex.

 

“The cameras we have added will now provide coverage for the entire area of the complex,” said Haws. “These are higher resolution cameras that will produce better quality. If something happens, we can zero in with a clearer image.

 

“This is more for prevention than anything else,” Haws continued. “We want the word out that the facility is secured for anyone going there.”

 

Editor's Note: City Manager Kim Haws, far right, talks to Council about the new security cameras in the top photo, while Mayor Robert "Bob" Greer, right and Council member Diana Marra talk agenda items in the bottom photo.