Armstrong, Bartholomew at odds on park vandalism

By Dan King

The top elected official in the town of Whitehall and the top elected official in the village of Whitehall aren’t seeing eye to eye on how to protect Candidate pic Ken BartholomewWhitehall’s town park and village park.

Both the town board and village board have brought concerns about how to deal with park vandalism to the forefront, but Mayor Ken Bartholomew and Town Supervisor George Armstrong aren’t in agreement on what is best.

At last week’s town board meeting, Armstrong explained that he thought the village’s police presence in the two parks was inadequate.

“Whenever we talk to the police about doing something at the park, they just tell us to get cameras,” Armstrong said. “We’ll investigate putting cameras in at the park, but at this point in time if (vandals) saw a cop walking through it would help a lot.”

Whitehall Police are a village entity and Armstrong’s comments did not sit well with Bartholomew, who also serves as commissioner of the police department. Bartholomew sent Armstrong a strongly worded email, saying that Armstrong’s statements were “ridiculous” and adding that the town should put in cameras at its own park.

“My attitude is the Town’s business is the Town’s business and the Village’s business is the Village’s business,” Bartholomew added.

Armstrong later apologized for his comments saying: “I should have not publicly stated my concern about police coverage at the park … I was out of line on making some my comments.”

However, Armstrong did not back down on his stance that the police department is one of many government programs in Whitehall that have made taxes high and driven people out of town.

“Every discussion about Whitehall ends up talking about high taxes that are driving people out of the village and town,” Armstrong wrote to Bartholomew.

Armstrong said that the town would look into putting cameras up in the town park, especially because he feels with the warmer weather will come an increase in the vandalism. The town purchased a few cameras in years past, but they have not been hooked up at the park, they are currently in the town hall.

Bartholomew has gone on the record multiple times saying that he feels cameras are the only way to curtail the issue, because the police simply cannot have a 24/7 presence in the park.

Police Sgt. Dick LaChapelle said earlier this month that with the nice weather, the village police have increased their presence in the town and village parks, during their foot patrols.