Photo by Kriss Szkurlatowski via stock.xchng
You’ll soon need a new key to get into Paddock Lake Village Hall when it’s locked.
The Village Board voted this week to pay for a rekeying of all Village Hall locks.
Trustee Terry Burns, who heads the village’s Buildings and Grounds Committee, said the rekeying is needed to re-establish who has a working key to Village Hall. He said copies of keys to the building have been handed out by village officials over the years to volunteers and community groups and no one was sure who exactly had a working key.
“We want to rekey all the locks to secure the building,” Burns said. “I don’t know who in the general public has a key to this building. This has turned into grand central station and it shouldn’t be.”
While the rekeying passed unanimously, the introduction of the issue opened a lengthy discussion of the lock on the office of village President Marlene Goodson.
Shortly after winning election as village President in April 2009, Goodson had a lock put on her office door for which only she has the key.
Burns had suggested including the president’s office in the rekeying, but Goodson objected, saying her duties as the custodian of certain public records necessitated the lock she installed.
After about 50 minutes of discussion of various possibilities, Goodson agreed to supply a duplicate key to her office to be kept in the lock box at Village Hall that is only accessible to emergency personnel.
The rekeying is estimated to cost about $450.
A policy also will be formed on who should have a key and how community groups can gain access to Village Hall.
