The Jamestown City Council will vote to possibly purchase a new wireless surveillance system for the Jamestown Police Department.

On Monday, the council will vote to possibly approve the purchase of a wireless video surveillance system in the amount of $32,588.79 from Wireless CCTV LLC of Richardson, Texas. Earlier this month the possible purchase was discussed by the council during a work session meeting. Sam Teresi, Jamestown mayor, said the wireless video system is attached to the back of a trailer that can efficiently be moved to designated location for surveillance. He said the camera will mainly be used at city events and at crime and fire scene investigations.

Teresi said the new mobile surveillance system can connect to a laptop computer or a smart phone to view activity. He said it has infrared capabilities to see at night. He added city officials should have the new mobile system by the Annual Labor Day Festival, which is scheduled for Sept. 1.

Teresi said the mobile device is different than the other surveillance cameras the Jamestown Police Department uses in the city. He said city officials have cameras that are fixed-based and mobile ones.

However, the mobile ones can be moved from BPU utilities poles, but don’t offer the efficiency the camera on a trailer will provide.

City officials will use $27,000 from its contingency account and $5,288.79 from local drug seizure proceeds to purchase the system. The council will also vote on a resolution approving the use of the contingency funds for the purchase of the surveillance system. If the council approves the resolution, city officials will have used $77,000 of the $300,000 they budgeted in the 2019 contingency fund.

In other business, the council will vote on two resolutions to possibly change the city code for public assemblies and parades and for special event permits. Earlier this week, Peter Larson, city corporation counsel, led a discussion on the possible changes. One example of a change is if someone or an organization owes the city money they cannot receive a special events permit.

Another area of the code that was changed or clarified was who has to pay some of the fees, the organization sponsoring the event or a vendor attending the event. Larson said the code was changed to name the event sponsor as the party responsible for paying fees so city officials don’t have to chase down a vendor that is traveling throughout the country for money owed. The sponsor can collect the necessary fees before the event. The sponsor pays most of the fees to the city prior to events.

Larson said a new chapter was added to focus on farmers markets or the Jamestown Public Market. He said the new clarifications add details like what type of vendors should be allowed at the local market, which would include area farmers not a corporate chain store.

There is also a new chapter on clarifying that the organization or people given a special use permit are not in violation of other city codes when it comes to noise and the blocking of streets. However, the special use permit will not allow for anyone to break the state’s penal law or authorize criminal conduct.

There were also changes to the issuing of a permit for neighborhood block parties. One change is that not all residents on the block have to sign a petition for the party. Now the language in the code states at least half the people on the block have to agree to the party. Larson said it would be impossible to receive everyone’s signature.