Fri Feb 03 2012
by Jeff Saunders
Reporter
Macedonia -- Irate residents coming to the city's building department have resulted in multiple requests from staff for police assistance, and now the department is asking City Council for funds in its 2009 budget for a bulletproof glass partition for its customer service counter.
Building Commissioner Mike Hlad said the department is seeking the partition in response to situations where angry residents have had to be escorted out of the department by police in recent months. Mayor Don Kuchta said he supports the proposal.
"My employees' safety takes precedence over everything and our police department has been up there more than once because people become irate," said Kuchta.
Hlad said that though he has received a few threats and there have been reported threats between residents over building and zoning issues, the staff has not been threatened. Still, he said, he believes that the window, similar to one used by the city's mayor's court clerk's office, is warranted.
"In today's day and age, there's a need for more security," he said.
Service Director Jim Crevar said he has received three estimates for the project ranging between a little under $5,000 to about $7,000.
Police Lt. Vince Yakopovich said the police have periodically had to help diffuse a situation.
"We've had issues where the staff called down and said they need a police officer up there," said Yakopovich. "We'll see what Council does with the funds [for the partition], but it's definitely an area we'd like to improve."
Yakopovich said that one situation in particular stands out. It involved a man who accused a neighbor of running a business out of his home in violation of city zoning regulations, a dispute which included alleged death threats back and forth between the two men.
Yakopovich said that although city employees were not threatened, employees had angry encounters in the building department with both men.
"It got ugly," he said.
Hlad estimated that building department staff have had to call the police to escort an angry resident out of the City Center four times since he took over the department June 1.
"I believe it's a result of myself and my department enforcing the zoning codes in a stricter way than they've been enforced before," said Hlad.
E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3169
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