Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/612945
DECEMBER 9-15, 2015 UCW 11 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Fayetteville's Public Works Commission is spending $55 Million over three years to upgrade its electric and water meters. Two companies have been contracted by PWC to change out decades old technology with digital equipment. According to PWC Communications and Community Relations Director Carolyn Justice-Hinson 182,000 residential, commercial and industrial meters are being replaced. The project began a year ago and will take another two years to complete, she said. Most people won't notice much of a change in electric meters. It's the guts of each device that has the new electronics. The new water meters have completely new innards, but users rarely see them because they're buried just beneath the surface. Pretty soon there will not be any more meter readers. Meter readers used to walk house-to-house. But in the last 15 years, meter readers have driven through neighborhoods using transmitters to record electricity and water usage. With the new technology, utility usage information will be transmitted by remote control to PWC's main office. Customers will be able to read their own meters online anytime they like, says Justice-Hinson. In the past, information was collected monthly and bills were sent out. Justice-Hinson says customers now can analyze their utility usage just as they do cell phone time, text and data consumption. During the holidays, residents will be able to keep tabs on their water and power use at times when they normally would use less. It would also allow customers to monitor air conditioning use during the summer. PWC's web portal will be interactive by 2016, says Justice-Hinson. The Public Works Commission is using its new Navigate software platform to manage all the data flowing from 73,000 residential meters, plus those of business and industrial customers. Individual utility customers are being notified of the retrofits by the installation contractors as the jobs are completed. PWC rate payers have been paying for the upgrades for a couple of years, and increases in electric and water bills will continue to reflect the expense of updating the meters over the next several years. The changeover has not resulted in layoffs of meter readers, PWC says. Officials say a slight workforce reduction has been gained through attrition and personnel transfers. NEWS Police departments nationwide are spending millions to outfit officers with cameras and archive the videos. It's the latest clash between the people's right to know and government authority. The public should not believe police transparency will necessarily be the end result. If it were up to Fayetteville Police Chief Harold Medlock, all police videos would be made available for public viewing, but it's not his call. In North Carolina, videos are considered confidential elements of crime scene investigations, according to Fayetteville City Attorney Karen McDonald. Only city council can authorize the public release of videos, and routinely it has not. Greenville, S.C., Police Chief Ken Miller who also served as chief of the Greensboro P.D., notes body camera issues vary from state to state. "Policies, training and resources also vary," Miller said. "We worked through a litany of privacy, legal, retention, training and financial concerns to ensure we met community expectations." That's what Medlock is going through now. He's holding a series of community forums this month personally telling residents of his plans. Medlock says camera policy will be an ongoing matter as citizens provide their input. The White House, through its Task Force on 21st Century Policing created a year ago, suggested new restrictions on camera use despite President Barack Obama's belief that the videos would improve transparency in policing. Medlock recently testified before the Task Force. It warned that releasing videos showing use of force, "even when lawful and appropriate," can undermine trust in police, and that images showing minors and graphic events raise concerns. The task force said public records laws need updating to protect the privacy of all people in these recordings, not just police officers. The Fayetteville Police Department's fleet of patrol cruisers has been equipped with in-car cameras for more than four years. By the end of the month, officers will begin wearing body cameras, says Medlock. Fayetteville Police chose Taser Axon to provide the body worn cameras using $1.2 million in grants and savings to equip 325 patrol officers. The biggest part of the funding is a $530,000 federal grant. Fayetteville's Police Department is the only law enforcement agency in North Carolina to receive the body cam competitive grant, said the chief. A few officers have been testing cameras over the last two years. Each personal video system is in two parts, the camera and a battery operated storage unit about the size of a deck of cards. According to Axon, the camera itself can be mounted to eyeglasses. Or it can be worn on an officer's uniform collar. It's attached with a wire to the controller that is clipped to a belt. When police officers double press the EVENT button to start recording, a video buffer allows the camera to keep a recording of events 30 seconds prior to hitting the ON button. As part of the contract with the city, Axon will twice replace all body cameras with newer technology. The first upgrade will come after two and a half years, with a second upgrade after five years. Medlock cautions that officers can't record every situation which they encounter because video storage is expensive. Medlock asked his audiences this month for their thoughts on when and under what circumstances cops should turn on their cameras. He explained that camera contents are automatically uploaded to the cloud as officers return to police headquarters at the end of each ten-hour shift. Chief Medlock tells Up & Coming Weekly that eventually body-worn cameras will completely replace police car dash cameras resulting in significant savings. In-car camera systems cost $6 thousand each.cameras are $600 each. Police Body Cameras Coming by JEFF THOMPSON According to Police Chief Medlock, by the end of the month, Fayetteville Police Department officers will begin wearing body cameras A $35 million Fayetteville Parks & Recreation bond referendum may not be a done deal, according to City Council members. As City Councilman Chalmers McDougald puts it, "It's a project evolution." Others agree that the proposed bond vote needs tweaking as to total cost, projects to be included and the locations where improvements will be made. For his part McDougald hopes things will be added to the referendum, like an indoor pool and additional splash pads. Mayor Nat Robertson notes council initially agreed to seven splash pads to be built around the city. But in its most recent vote, four of them had been removed. Two city pools were reduced to one. The other is included in a 15-year loan and not all council members are happy about that. Members who responded to Up & Coming Weekly's inquiry said even though they all agreed on the revised project list, some concede they were distracted by cost issues rather than projects themselves. Councilman Mitch Colvin agrees with Mayor Robertson that the referendum should be put off until next November. The March 15 ballot will be too crowded, Colvin says, noting that a statewide $2 billion bond referendum will also be on the ballot. But most members are firm in their stance to hold the referendum in March. Colvin is among a majority which would like to see a river park aquarium removed from the project list. Council member Bill Crisp agrees. "I am not at all sure how the aquarium found its way into the proposed referendum," said Crisp. Robertson also questions how a project list agreed to in October "was morphed" into a new listing on Nov. 23. Councilman Bobby Hurst favors the revision, and as far as he is concerned, "council has finalized this package of prospects." As for what happens if and when voters approve the bond issue, Council Member Ted Mohn points out that the administration has to provide accurate projections of operational costs. Several members have asked the city manager's office for some numbers. Mohn notes the last time council had any idea of ongoing operating costs was 2012 and they were 2010 figures. Council has been assured that operating expenses should not be a major concern on upcoming budgets. Hurst and Colvin point out that a newly adopted schedule of user fees for non- taxpaying residents as well as fees for some of the facilities should offset any minor increase in expenses. Council hopes people will turn out in large numbers for a public hearing in council chambers the night of Dec. 14. Parks Bond Referendum by JEFF THOMPSON 21st Century Meter Technology by JEFF THOMPSON JEFF THOMPSON, Senior News Reporter. COMMENTS? news@upandcomingweekly. com. 910.484.6200.