Downtown Community Improvement District donates money to replace downtown security cameras

The Downtown Community Improvement District is donating $23,140 to help cover the cost of replacing two non-working security cameras in downtown Columbia.

The Downtown Community Improvement District will present the donation to the Columbia City Council, and Mayor Brian Treece on Monday night.

In a letter, the Downtown Community Improvement District’s Executive Director Katie Essing said, “The Downtown Community Improvement District would like to offer support in our shared effort to improve the safety of our downtown.”

The donation would be a one time donation for the 2017 fiscal year.

“We partner closely with the Columbia Police Department and understand the need for the replacement of two Downtown CCTV cameras. We would like to provide a one-time donation to fund the 2017 fiscal year hosting of the downtown camera system,” Essing said.

It will cost $7,000 to replace the two nonworking cameras. The remaining $16,140 is to help with the cost of data hosting for one year.

The CID says after one year, the data hosting costs would be up to CPD to maintain in it’s 2018 fiscal year budget.

The Downtown Community Improvement District is asking the Columbia City Council to accept the donation.

ABC 17 News reported back in April that the Columbia Police Department did not budget for camera replacements or maintenance of cameras. Only affecting six cameras downtown, not including garage cameras maintained by Public Works.

The cameras were installed in Columbia about four to five years ago. ABC 17 News was told it would cost around $100,000 to replace the cameras.

The CID says the decision was made at the CID’s September board meeting.

Essing tells ABC 17 News that the CID has funding in their budget for Public Safety efforts.