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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; A couple of vendors have shown interest in maintaining the city&#8217;s video camera surveillance system, city administrator Ted Wampole said.</p><p>The deadline was Oct. 4 to respond to a Request for Proposals that asked for information about the vendor and prior projects in which the vendor has participated. The RFP did not ask for costs.</p><p>&#8220;We just have two in right now,&#8221; Wampole said Monday. Others might have been dropped off at other departments besides the City Clerk&#8217;s office, he said.</p><p>Due to the short work week with City Hall closed Friday for the Veterans Day holiday, the submissions likely won&#8217;t get looked at until next week, Wampole said.</p><p>The $25,000 annual maintenance contract with Platinum Networks LLC expires at the end of the year and the city is trying to determine if it can get a better deal for the upkeep and operation of the approximately 290 cameras, equipment and hardware that make up the system. The city will negotiate a professional service contract with the most qualified vendor.</p><p>Mayor Tony George, who took office in January, has been critical of the state of the system, saying many of the cameras are not operable and it&#8217;s been months since the control center at police headquarters has been staffed with personnel to monitor the video feeds. A former police chief, the mayor said he&#8217;s in favor of the concept of a video camera surveillance system. The Wilkes-Barre Police Benevolent Association also supports the system as its officers have used it as part of their investigations.</p><p>The system, initially set up as the non-profit corporation Hawkeye Security Solutions LLC, went online in 2010 and a combination of police officers and the private security contractor Legion Security Services Inc. of Wilkes-Barre viewed the camera feeds to the control center at police headquarters. Hawkeye dissolved last December and the city took control of the system built with more than $3.6 million in state and federal grants.</p><p>While the city continues to review the monitoring issue, it lost its last outside source of revenue for the system. The Wilkes-Barre Parking Authority had paid been paying $100,000 a year for cameras in its garages, but after learning the cameras were not being watched, it chose to let its contract expire Oct. 31.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre received replies from at least two vendors to maintain the video camera surveillance system that feeds into the control center at police headquarters, but it hasn&#8217;t been monitored for months and many of the cameras aren&#8217;t operating, city officials said. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_TTL0922716hawkeye1-cmyk.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes-Barre received replies from at least two vendors to maintain the video camera surveillance system that feeds into the control center at police headquarters, but it hasn&#8217;t been monitored for months and many of the cameras aren&#8217;t operating, city officials said. </caption0><photoCredit0>Sean McKeag file photo | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Replies received for Wilkes-Barre’s RFP for maintenance of video cameras