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Council extends red-light cameras for 120 days

Jesse Hollett
Posted 10/5/16

ORANGE PARK – Amidst scathing public comments that the town’s administration did not have residents’ safety in mind, Orange Park Town Council has extended its red-light camera contract for 120 …

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Council extends red-light cameras for 120 days


Posted

ORANGE PARK – Amidst scathing public comments that the town’s administration did not have residents’ safety in mind, Orange Park Town Council has extended its red-light camera contract for 120 days.

The 3-2 vote authorizing the extension with American Traffic Solutions was cast at a special called town council meeting on Sept. 29.

This means the town’s three cameras at the intersections of Kingsley and Park Avenues, Kingsley and Debarry Avenues and Park Avenue and Loring did not go dark Oct. 1 as they were scheduled to as the contract had been scheduled to expire Sept. 30

The extension gives the town more time to request proposals from other camera companies and get the best deal if the council ultimately chooses to renew the cameras again. These requests will include the addition of a new camera at the intersection of Wells Road and Park Avenue.

Representatives from ATS have already offered the town a three-month credit for a three-year renewal.

The cameras brought in approximately $579,167 in revenue last year, while also increasing town expenditures by $327,300. “These estimates do not include costs of town personnel to administer the program and related mailing costs totaling $59,800,” states a memo from Orange Park Police Chief Gary Goble to the council.

The prevailing reason for the extension, however, appeared to be to allow more research into what effects, if any, the red-light cameras have on public safety.

Many residents in attendance seemed to believe they do.

“I would hope that the health and safety of our town is more important than whatever prejudices you might have,” said Mike Choate, who lives on River Road. “They force you to pay attention to what’s going on out there, and I’m so ticked to see when I come up to Kingsley here and see the cars actually stop.”

Mayor Eugene Nix and Vice-Mayor Scott Land, who both voted against the extension, were the brunt of angry comments near the end of the meeting.

“I would ask why some of you voted against it, can you tell me? Tonight. Right now,” Choate said.

“I feel government is overstepping its bounds with red-light cameras,” Land said. “We have guns, you can take everyone’s guns away and make everybody safer, you can put speed cameras out, law doesn’t allow it, but you could. There’s a lot of things you could do to make everyone safer…You have to decide where you want to draw the line. Red-light cameras are where I draw the line.”

The audience laughed when Choate rebutted, saying guns and red-light cameras were incomparable.

Land has remained the red-light camera’s primary critic throughout the process of deciding whether to renew or not. He has said in the past that the cameras stigmatize the town.

Still, the cameras have proven to be an unpopular source of revenue, while providing little in the way of measurable safety improvements. This has prompted some to despise the cameras.

“I think that you know if they’ve want to renew them, all I’ve got to say is to lower those fines,” said Elaine Sikes, who lives on a fixed income and passes by the Kingsley Avenue red-light cameras on her way to Orange Park Senior Center three times a week. “I’m afraid to go by that light to tell you the truth.”

Nix and Councilman Steve Howard again both said they had no idea why they were voting on the contracts at “the eleventh hour,” and placed the blame on Town Manager Jim Hanson, despite not voting to extend the cameras at the Sept. 20 meeting. No council member voted to extend the meeting past its 10 p.m. deadline.

Hanson said the council has known the contract was to expire since late July.

State lawmakers authorized red-light cameras in 2010 with the intention of improving public safety, with the added effect of earning state and local governments revenue.

A 2015 legislative analysis found red-light cameras net around $128 million in revenue every year. The red-light camera tickets are $158 and the town gets $75 from each ticket.