By Nick Mattera
Niagara Gazette
LEWISTON —
In an effort to curb vandalism, help police a newly implemented no-swimming zone and inject some peace of mind to boaters and visitors to Lewiston Landing, the Village Board of trustees plans to add video surveillance equipment — with the help of the Border Patrol.
Lewiston Mayor Terry Collesano said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have indicated their intentions of assisting the village in the purchase of $1,100 worth of security cameras, which he said will hopefully make vandals think twice before acting.
“The Border Patrol has told us they are interested, so we are approaching them to see if they will contribute half,” Collesano said. “The harbormasters have noticed an increase in vandalism, not only to some of the boats, bout to the comfort stations as well. There is a lot of garbage laying around and we believe cameras would prevent a lot of this from happening.”
Harbormaster Kenneth Ladue said the cameras would be a welcoming addition to Lewiston Landing and would “certainly dissuade” youth from vandalizing village property or violating ordinances. Ladue said he and John Ritter, who also serves as a harbormaster, have worked diligently all summer painting, staining and power-washing the boat docks and comfort stations, all for naught because of the vandalism.
“One morning we found graffiti all over the entire bathrooms, some really raunchy stuff, kids get in these bathrooms and you don’t know what they are doing,” he said. “Boaters have complained about kids getting into their vessels in the night and often we find garbage all over the bathrooms. This kind of stuff stops families and boaters from coming here.”
Ladue said the addition of security cameras would make youth think twice.
“So if kids know or anybody knows the we have security cameras, they know it would be stupid for them to do anything,” he said. “We want families to come down and fisherman to come and they aren’t because of these kids.”
Last month the village board took measures to keep rowdy youth out of Lewiston Landing by making the waterfront a no-swimming zone. Village officials added signage warning those of the new village policy and beefed up patrols, both from Lewiston police and the Border Patrol.
Ritter, who works the morning shift as harbormaster, said the real issue is keeping everyone safe while maintaining the integrity of the public space.
“Our main concern is not getting anybody hurt, which is why we were concerned about swimming,” he said. “We aren’t trying to keep anyone out, it’s a village park, we want everyone to come down control themselves and enjoy the beautiful space.”
Ritter added despite the new village rule eliminating swimming, youth are still coming to the landing during off-hours — when there is no harbormaster working and going into the water.
“That is why we need more police patrols in the area,” he said.
