Local Business
Anderson businesses to pay for false alarms
Council approves ordinance allowing fine collection
ANDERSON — Businesses within the city will have to pay if their alarm systems send police on a false call.
The City Council on Thursday approved on all three readings an ordinance setting fees for false alarms answered by the Anderson Police Department when the systems are unnecessarily tripped.
While the first false alarm run will result in a warning, subsequent offenses will cause fines. The second offense within a calendar year will net a $50 fine, the third offense $100 and the fourth offense $200. Subsequent offenses will bring a $300 fine each.
The city’s general fund will receive 25 percent of the fines paid, while the rest will go to APD’s non-reverting police training fund.
City attorney Tim Lanane said the ordinance was similar to one passed for false fire alarms.
“It really adds up,” he said. “They’re really trying to get to some of the repeat offenders, so to speak.”
City Councilman Mike Welch said, as part of the Police Merit Commission, he has ridden with officers responding to false alarms. He said oftentimes, nighttime cleaning and maintenance workers accidentally trip the alarms when they enter.
“I’ve noticed and observed some of these businesses the officers have to go out to,” he said. “It happens over and over again, and a lot of times it’s the same ones and it is costly.”
The ordinance says the false alarm calls cause unnecessary wear and tear on police vehicles and put officers and the public in danger. It says a large number of false alarm calls are made by private emergency systems.
False alarmed is defined as “the activation of an alarm system eliciting any response by the Anderson Police Department which is not in response to actual or threatened danger to a person or damage to property” and can include activation of an alarm system through mechanical failure, malfunction, improper installation or maintenance or a negligent, reckless or intentional act of an alarm user.
Police can use their discretion in assessing fines.
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In other business, the council approved a 10-year tax abatement on $200 million worth of new equipment for a Nestlé expansion.
The new line will produce a liquid nutritional product, a Nestlé spokesman said.
The abatement will allow Nestlé to pay no taxes on the equipment for the first year and add 10 percent onto its taxes each year until it is paying the fully assessed amount.
With abatements on Nestlé’s building, equipment and expansions, the company will save about $39.8 million on its $600 million investment over 20 years, but will end up paying about $81.4 million, according to figures produced by the Economic Development Department.
“Even though the savings is high, the tax benefit to the community is significantly higher,” Economic Development Director Linda Dawson said in an e-mail.
The council voted 6-2 in favor of the abatement. Councilman Art Pepelea voted against the measure, saying he had just received a copy of the resolution a few minutes prior to the meeting, and Councilman Rodney Chamberlain voted no after expressing concerns that Nestlé was marketing its open positions in Indianapolis and not Anderson.
Contact Aleasha Sandley: 640-4805, aleasha.sandley @heraldbulletin.com.
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