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Extra guards for libraries, county offices cut from Harford budget
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Harford County (Map, News) - Harford County won’t hire more armed guards for its libraries and government offices.
The County Council cut funding in the fiscal 2009 budget for hiring and equipping two guards who would have provided additional security, conducted patrols and escorted employees carrying money for bank deposits.
Those duties will be covered by the nine existing guards and Harford County sheriff’s deputies working overtime, said Council President Billy Boniface.
“We’ll just have to continue with the coverage we have right now,” said Audra Caplan, Harford libraries director.
Teens looking for after-school activities often end up in county libraries, where some of them loiter outside, crowd around computers or become loud and confrontational.
Edgewood, Aberdeen, Joppatowne and Havre de Grace libraries hire guards from private security companies or off-duty police, but they have their limitations, Caplan said.
High turnover prevents private guards from getting to know the patrons, and deputies or local police sometimes have to leave to deal with emergency calls when they’re posted at the libraries.
“I would think that a well-trained county security force would be easier to deal with because we’d go directly through the county rather than a private company,” Caplan said. “We have to pay deputies more than we would a county guard, and we just don’t have the money for that.”
County Executive David Craig had proposed spending $447,000 for two additional guards.
The money set aside for the additional guards had originally been taken out of the library budget, where it would have paid for additional private security, said Lorraine Costello, chief of administration for County Executive David Craig.
Costello said the additional guards could also have been used at other county properties.
In Edgewood, the new Recreation Center has suffered from several incidents of vandalism and has required a guard to be posted overnight; space being renovated for temporary offices for the County Health Department and a food bank in the Woodbridge Center has had its windows broken, she said.
msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
1:41 PM MST on Sat., May. 24, 2008 re: "Extra guards for libraries, county offices cut from Harford budget"
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4:58 AM MST on Sat., May. 24, 2008
re: "Extra guards for libraries, county offices cut from Harford budget"
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JB said:
What has Edgewood become? I graduated from Edgewood in '97 and have not been back because I have heard of how horrible it has become. What's up with schools needing security these days? None of my schools had security -- cops were called a few times a year to deal with crime.
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The Undertaker said:
You need an armed guard for a library. Really? What type of savages have we become?
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