Council Committee Split On Study

Is City Hall Secure?

Question Stirs Debate

By JENNIFER HILL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

ONEONTA – How secure is City Hall and its related facilities?

That question stirred a lively debate over whether to spend $16,500 on a "facility-security study" at last night's meeting of Common Council’s OPEC, the Operations Planning and Evaluation Committee.

Council members Michelle Frazier and John Rafter opposed the idea, and OPEC chairman Dave Rissberger, backed up by City Manager George Korthauer, supporting it.  With OPEC member Michelle Osterhoudt absent, action was delayed for a week.

This is the second time the proposal by Binghamton-based McFarland Johnson was set aside.  At last week's Common Council meeting, Mayor Gary Herzig removed the motion from the agenda to allow OPEC review.