Date: Fri 06-Jun-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Selectmen-Alarm-Review-Board

Full Text:

Selectmen Appoint Alarm Review Board

The Board of Selectmen Monday approved the appointment of three members to the

town's new Alarm Review Board.

The board was recently created to review any appeals from fines for false

alarms at homes or businesses. The Legislative Council recently passed an

ordinance that levies penalty fees on alarm-system users with multiple false

alarms at their homes. Any resident who has more than three false alarms

responded to by police will be charged a $30 penalty. Officers have been

responding to an average of six false alarms per day, according to Police

Chief David Lysaght, who hopes the new ordinance will cut that number down.

The review board includes George Caracciolo of 17 Schoolhouse Hill Road, Ann

Kersting of 12 Adams Hill Lane and Mark DeWolfe of 1 Misty Vale Road.

Mr Caracciolo has been interested in the new ordinance from the start. He's

been outspoken in his opposition to a part of the ordinance that charges a $15

one-time registration fee on all alarm systems. Mr Caracciolo, along with many

other residents, consider the registration fee to be a sort of tax by the

government.

"If you charge people, they'll be discouraged from putting in alarms. They'll

look at this as a tax that will continuously go up," he said.

There are a total of 2,173 registered alarms in Newtown, according to the

council. Some estimated there could be as many as 1,500 alarms that are not

registered.