posted on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 9:03 AM
by
klehan
Lynn, MA, and Alarm Industry Work Together for Ordinance
A recent collaboration between the alarm industry and the powers-that-be in Lynn, Mass., has seen the successful creation of an alarm ordinance that everyone can live with.
John Olson, Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce chairman, hailed the agreement. “The best thing from my perspective is that not only did we end up producing an effective and fair ordinance,” Olson said, “but in the process we changed the view people in city government have about the role the Chamber can play in setting policy.”
Lynn City Councilor Dan Cahill agrees: “It just became this great sharing of information. It was a wonderful learning experience that exemplified the quintessential model for a public/private collaboration,” Cahill said. “That’s rare in government. It was just a pleasure to work with those guys.”
Cahill last year proposed an ordinance that would fine owners with repeated false alarm calls. Cahill cited numerous other communities that had an ordinance in place and claimed such an ordinance could reduce the number of false alarm dispatches by as much as 80 percent.