Stockert Youth & Community Center seeking to bolster front-door security

Monica Zalaznik
December 13, 2020

BUCKHANNON – The Stockert Youth and Community Center Board recently voted to receive bids for increased door security at SYCC.

At the SYCC Board’s Monday, Dec. 7 meeting, SYCC executive director Debora Brockleman said the board approved adding security to the doors about a year ago, but they had not yet sought or received bids.

“I’d like to start getting quotes for this, and we are looking for something similar to what they have at the schools where the doors are unlocked for a certain amount of time like for drop-off and pickup and then throughout the day, the doors are locked, but if someone needs to come in, they just ring the doorbell or the buzzer, and there will be a camera there, and they can be buzzed in,” Brockleman said.

She said SYCC has had instances of people wandering into the building and they would like to prevent that from occurring regularly.

“The staff would have a swipe card so they could come in and leave that with their cards because [the doors] will be programmed for them to be coming in and out, whatever their schedule is,” Brockleman said. “There’s all kinds of details that need to be worked out, depending on what system we would decide to go with, but it’s really a safety issue.”

She is hoping to purchase a system that can also be programmed to keep the doors open for the duration of certain programs – such as basketball – but locked when the campus is closed for summer camp.

“We have non-custodial parents who want to come in and pick up their children when they’re not the people that should be picking them up, and we’ve had a lot of random people come in during a closed campus time and sometimes they just want to come in and hang out and then they get upset if you tell them that they have to leave,” Brockleman said. “There’s lots of different situations, so we need to have security on the front doors.”

Board member Nancy Shobe agreed that security at SYCC is very important and they should look into getting bids for a security system. SYCC board member Pam Bucklew seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.