HUNTINGTON -- If you notice a pair of police officers on foot along 3rd or 4th avenues tonight or Saturday night, you can thank the Huntington-Ironton Empowerment Zone, Tri-State Transit Authority and Metropolitan Partners, the owners of Pullman Square.
The three groups pitched in $20,000 each to contract with the Huntington Police Department to hire an officer dedicated to serving the core downtown Huntington area.
"We want to provide that extra security to people and make them feel comfortable so they can have a good time, and make parents feel better (about their kids) coming down to the business district," said Cathy Burns, executive director of the Huntington-Ironton Empowerment Zone. "If property owners see value in this, we'd love to see it grow."
The patrolling actually started last weekend, Burns said.
Because it will take some time to get a new, full-time officer in place, off-duty HPD officers are taking on the duty right now. They're manning Veterans Memorial Boulevard, 3rd and 4th avenues, between 8th and 10th streets, from 8 p.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday nights, Burns said.
Police Chief Skip Holbrook said the full-time officer likely will be someone who's already on the force, but that person will have to wait until a replacement gets out of the academy. That could take a couple months, he said.
How the security will be funded is "similar to how we've done school resource officers -- how the Board of Education reimburses us for that," Holbrook said. For now, the Empowerment Zone, TTA and Metropolitan Partners are footing the bill for the overtime that the officers are getting, and then they'll pay for the full-time officer. They offered $60,000 total for the year.
This extra security is not part of the proposed Business Improvement District, Burns said, but if that is approved, she'd like that to eventually take over the funding.
The BID district is an area in which property owners agree to pay an extra tax for additional security, cleanup and maintenance services. Backers of the proposed district want the cleanliness and sense of security at Pullman Square to spill into more of the downtown. Right now, the proposed district covers mostly the south side of 3rd Avenue and part of 9th Street.
The Empowerment Zone is working with property owners to organize the district and has signatures from owners representing more than 50 percent of the assessed value within the boundaries -- a requirement before it goes before City Council for approval.
"The idea is we're going to go ahead and start (the additional security) now," Burns said. "My hope is that the BID district will be the funding source at some point. ... There are lots of people downtown now, and it will take six months to get the BID district officially in place, if it's approved. Then we'd miss the entire summer, when the weather is nice and daylight hours are longer."
Along with encouraging people to come downtown for entertainment, security is also an important issue as Huntington encourages developers to invest in downtown housing, she said.
"If you're going to encourage people to live downtown, you have to have that additional security," Burns said.
Holbrook said the downtown officer will try to curb panhandling and address other issues that come up. And while police will focus on 3rd and 4th avenues between 8th and 10th streets, "it's not like they're going to have a shock collar on in case they go across 4th Avenue. They'll be available to any situation presented down there," he said.
The officer may be able to patrol the riverfront at times as well, he said. Safety is among the issues that inhibit usage of Harris Riverfront Park, officials and residents have said.
Holbrook said it's a great partnership and refreshing to see the involvement of business owners.
Burns also credited Metropolitan Partners for pitching in, even though it pays for its own security at Pullman Square.
"What's unique is they have their own security and Huntington police officers working in their own development, so this complements what they're doing," she said. "They recognize their development is not a stand-alone island and they're willing to partner with us and support this."
7-day Archive
