Published: 07/31/2007
With scooter help from businesses, cops ready to roll By Chris Cassidy Staff writer
SALEM - Three local businesses will give the Police Department what the city's budget could not afford - two scooter-like vehicles to patrol parts of the downtown, including the vandalism-prone Essex Street pedestrian mall.
For two weeks earlier this year, police test-drove the T3, a three-wheeled, electric-powered vehicle similar to a Segway that moves in the direction its driver leans. It can reach a top speed of 25 mph and has a zero-degree turning radius.
But the city couldn't afford to buy the vehicles, which sell for between $6,000 and $8,000, because of budget constraints.
The owners of Marine Arts Gallery on Essex Street, however, were so impressed by the vehicle's potential to fight vandalism on the pedestrian mall that, late last month, they presented the city with a check for $1,500 to use toward buying one.
"We just thought it was something that would benefit the entire business community," said Peter Kiernan, the second-generation owner of Marine Arts Gallery, which has been at the same Essex Street site since 1968.
The Peabody Essex Museum contributed another $1,500, which, when combined with the Marine Arts donation and "a small amount of money" from the city, should be enough to buy one T3, according to Mayor Kim Driscoll.
In addition, Kernwood Country Club has committed to donating enough money to buy a second T3 for the city, she said.
"Kernwood's always been a community partner," Driscoll said. "They've come through for us in the past. ... We're very grateful to all three. ... I think they saw it and recognized what a terrific public safety tool it would be. "We're just grateful we have some terrific stakeholders in the community that are willing to help us pick up the cost for a new cutting-edge tool like this."
Police plan to dedicate at least one of the vehicles to patrolling the downtown, including the pedestrian mall, which some business owners have complained can be a haven for vandals, said police Capt. Brian Gilligan. They will also likely be used during the Police Department's ramped-up patrols of the downtown on Halloween, he said.
"It's a really big icebreaker between the citizens and the police," Gilligan said of the T3s. "The citizens ... feel the police are more approachable on this, and it's a topic of conversation to get them talking to the police."
Kiernan said he hoped other downtown businesses and institutions would step up and make similar donations to the city to improve the downtown.
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