Buckhead CID Board Approves Security Cameras

More security cameras will soon be keeping watch in Buckhead.

"Cameras will be focused on the public realm, sidewalks and streets, to deter crime and allow the police to solve crimes," said Buckhead Community Improvement District Executive Director Jim Durrett in an email.

The Buckhead CID's board this week approved the expenditure of $140,000 for a network of 14 cameras that will be installed from the Buckhead Village area up Peachtree Road to beyond Roxboro Road.For details of the program, along with a map of where the cameras will be located, see the accompanying PDF.

. The total cost is $210,000, with the Atlanta Police Foundation picking up $70,000. Durrett told the board the system is expected to be in operation by January.

In addition, the Buckhead CID had already approved two cameras behind the Meridian Apartments near the Buckhead MARTA Station. The CID board this week approved spending $20,000 for a third camera in the area.

Thus Buckhead will join downtown and Midtown in receiving surveillance from the Atlanta Police Department's video integration center downtown. Durrett said in his email that private companies can request having their security cameras tied in to the system.

The is making grants to Buckhead businesses outside of the CID area to tie their security systems into the city system. Buckhead Coalition President Sam Massell told Buckhead Patch that the organization has pledged $20,000 to help businesses acquire the technical equipment to join the system.

In other Buckhead CID business, Durrett notified the board that construction likely will begin in the first quarter of 2012 The MARTA board, which Durrett chairs, will vote Nov. 14 on a resolution to award the contract. Contractor Archer Western submitted the bid of $18.4 million.

District 7 Councilman and CID board member Howard Shook said that under , District 6 City Councilman Alex Wan's boundries will be extended north into Buckhead. Shook said that District 7 must be reduced to a population of 35,000

Shook said that Wan will likely acquire either or Brookwood Hills, along with "a good chunk" of the apartment and commercial area near the Lindberg MARTA Station.

The Buckhead CID board also swore in . Richardson, development director for OliverMcMillan, replaces Jeremy Meredith on the board.