Sep. 16—MASSENA — The Massena Housing Authority will use $250,000 in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to address security in some of its buildings.
Mary S. Elman, executive director of the housing authority, said they had applied for a safety and security grant in June and received notice this week that their application had been successful.
"We're moving to a keyless system, where it will either be cards or fobs. That way, it will secure the building much more effectively and efficiently," she said.
The work will be done at Laurel Terrace, Grasmere Terrace, 55 Victory Road, and a shared laundry and mailroom for the authority's family housing buildings.
Elman said the move will allow them to do away with key entry to those buildings.
"Currently, people can go have keys made even though the keys say don't duplicate. We can't control the safety of the building if we can't control who's in the building," she said. "Even though we changed the apartment keys, if we don't get everything back your key will give you access to the building. With the keyless system, we just go into the computer and disable like they do at a hotel. We will be much more able to secure the safety of our residents. We feel that it's going to make our properties much more secure and much more safe. We hope that it gives our residents much more of a sense of peace of mind."
She said the housing authority was "very committed to the safety and security of our residents."
"That's the absolute priority above all else. So, we are absolutely thrilled that we are going to be able to accomplish this goal," Elman said.
She said Police Chief Jason M. Olson assisted with the grant application.
"I have to give kudos to Jason Olson. He sat down with me and I told him what exactly I would need from the police department in terms of information. He gathered it all for me and issued us a letter of support, which I'm sure was very helpful," she said.
With the funding in hand, Elman said they can start work on the project, but it will take some time.
"It's going to be a while before this switch. There's a lot of work that goes into a project of this magnitude. We always said things happen overnight, but any one of us who tried to get anybody or who has to go through the process of doing any work in our homes understands that in a project of this magnitude there's a lot of engineering and there's a whole lot of infrastructure, wiring and that kind of thing that's going to need to happen as well. So, this is a big undertaking," she said.