NEW SCOTLAND — The town of New Scotland has decided to install surveillance cameras at its highway garage in order to stop “people in there taking materials that aren’t supposed to be in there taking materials.”

The installation will be part of a broader upgrade of New Scotland’s surveillance system that was approved by the town board during its recent monthly meeting.

The cameras are to be exterior-only, Ken Guyer, New Scotland’s Highway Superintendent, told the board on Aug. 14. There are also cameras installed at Town Hall as well as at the Swift Road and Feura Bush parks. 

“They would be on our fuel pumps,” Guyer said of the cameras at the highway garage. “They would be on our stockpiles of material.”

Responding to a question from Councilwoman Bridgit Burke about what kind of problems necessitated the installation of a video surveillance system at the highway garage, Guyer said, “People [were] in there taking materials that aren’t supposed to be in there taking materials.” He added there had also been “issues in the past.” The most recent, Guyer said, took place two months ago. 

Guyer was unavailable for comment before press time.

As part of the resolution approving the installation, the board stated that, while the new system will be able to record audio, the town would not “enable the audio feature of the equipment.”

One new wrinkle the town has to contend with is the presence of a union in the highway garage. 

In August of last year, the town board agreed to voluntarily recognize the Civil Service Employees Association as the bargaining representative of about 15 workers in the town’s highway, water and sewer, mechanic, transfer station, and parks departments. 

The two sides are still hammering out a first contract. 

Councilman Adam Greenberg asked if the union needed to be taken into consideration when approving the resolution to install cameras at the highway garage.

Supervisor Douglas LaGrange replied that, earlier in the day, he had contacted the town’s labor lawyer, who in turn reached out to representatives from CSEA, and the two sides came to general agreement about the installation.

The CSEA did not immediately return a request for comment from The Enterprise close to deadline. 

The resolution said in part that the cameras will be installed solely for the purpose of ensuring employee safety and protecting the town’s assets, and that the town shall not use the camera footage for any disciplinary purposes.

Language was included in the resolution that said the policy’s final implementation is ultimately contingent on an Memorandum of Agreement with the union being in place.