Englewood library to reopen on March 13

Security measures in place

BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

e Englewood Public Library is set to reopen March 13 after closing roughly two months ago due to methamphetamine contamination. Christina Underhill, the city’s director of parks, recreation, library and golf, announced the reopening in an email to the city’s library board members on March 3. ere will also be enhanced security coming to the civic center through the addition of more guards, she said.

Underhill and Deputy Director of Public Works Chris Edelstein presented di erent options for enhancing security at the civic center and library during the Englewood City Council’s Feb. 27 meeting.

e ideas included restricting access to certain entrances to the building, adding metal detectors and increasing security guard staing.

“Our goal is to increase security and safety for all who visit the civic center,” Underhill said.

e civic center and public library are part of the same building, located at 1000 Englewood Parkway. ere are three main entrances to the building, including a north and south entrance on the main level of the building and a south entrance on the second oor of the building.

Of the ve safety enhancement options that were presented to the city council, sta recommended the option that included making the second oor entrance an employeeonly entrance and placing metal detectors and guards at the rst oor entrances.

is option was evaluated heaviest from the city’s re marshal’s o ce and building o cials, and multiple city sta were involved, Underhill said.

“ e metal detectors would prohibit some items from coming into our facility. We see a lot of shopping carts, bikes, various items that do enter the civic center and the library itself. And so ultimately, that would help deter a lot of … those types of items from coming into the facility, which ultimately will make it safer,” Underhill said.

She said there have been some people who expressed they would not feel comfortable coming into the building if there were metal detectors, while others have said they would feel safer.

Several council members raised concerns about the addition of metal detectors to the building. Mayor Pro Tem Steven Ward asked whether the addition of the metal detectors would make Englewood Public Library the rst public library in Colorado to have metal detectors.

“I do not want to be the rst library in the state of Colorado that installs metal detectors. It’s important to me. I want to maintain a safe and orderly environment. ere are more ways to do that than metal detectors,” Ward said.

“I have similar reservations about the welcoming feel of the library if we install metal detectors,” Councilmember Joe Anderson said.

In addition to having concerns about the metal detectors, Councilmember Rita Russell said she had a problem with the idea of restricting the second oor entrance.

“ is is where citizens come to do their business, not just to go to the library. And I think we need to have it open and inviting,” Russell said. Following some discussion of di erent ideas, a majority of the council agreed to keeping all of the entrances open and increasing the number of security guards in the civic center so that there will be a guard at each of the entrances as well as another guard oating throughout the building to respond

Steven Ward, Mayor Pro Tem

to any potential issues. No metal detectors will be added. is new plan will increase the city’s annual security cost by more than $300,000, according to the sta ’s presentation.

In her email to the library board, Underhill said the north civic center lobby will be open but the north doors to the library will remain closed.

“ e easiest way to access the library is through the south entrance on the parking garage side. Our library security sta will be positioned inside the south entry doors,” Underhill wrote.

She noted it is possible that the bathrooms will not be ready for the March 13 opening, and that the onsite restroom trailer will stay in place until all restrooms are reopened.

Environmental sensors

As part of its security enhance- ment measures, the city is considering adding environmental sensors to the restrooms on the rst and second oors, according to the sta presentation. e city has been in contact with two di erent manufacturers of environmental sensors, Edelstein said. ese sensors would not be able to distinguish meth, he noted. However, these sensors are meant to detect total volatile organic compounds, smoke, vape and noise.

“ ey can, number one, notify our camera system. So, that way it can kind of ag the camera outside — we don’t have cameras in the restroom facilities, let me be clear on that — they’d be outside the door,” he said. “So as the individual walks out, they can kind of get … a screenshot of that individual and the technology is there to kind of follow them through the cameras … inside the civic center.”

Edelstein said the reason for the environmental sensors is to try to prevent reoccurrence of issues such as smoking substances inside the restroom. e cost of implementing the environmental monitoring equipment is currently unknown.

Councilmember Chelsea Nunnenkamp asked if there was an estimate on when the city will know the costs of the monitoring services. Edelstein said the city is waiting on a demo unit and there is not currently a time estimate.

“It’s gonna tie into our camera system so I would assume it’s gonna be a one-time cost for the purchase of all of the items, and then after that, it rolls into our normal camera system — security camera system,” he said.

“I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’” she said. “And he’s like, ‘Well there was a lockdown.’ And I was like, ‘Why are you here?’ And he said, ‘Well, because I left. Why would I be in the building if there is a shooter?’”

Littleton High School was one of more than a dozen Colorado schools that were targeted by hoax threat calls, known as “swatting” calls, on Feb. 22. e incident threw parents, students, school sta , law enforcement o cials and district o cials into immediate response mode as they tried to gure out what was happening and how to communicate during the incident.

Communication

Melissa Yongue found out about the lockdown when her ninth-grade daughter texted her from inside the school. Yongue was aware of the swatting calls happening at other schools. Her daughter said she heard no gun re in the building.

“I would say within probably 10, 20 minutes, I think… my husband and her and I all felt pretty condent that it was just part of the hoax calls coming in because she wasn’t hearing anything,” Yongue said. “So it was kind of a short-lived panic, but it was de nitely a panic. I mean, it’s not something that any parent wants to get from a text message from their child in 2023.”

While the lockdown was happening, Yongue said she continuously refreshed the Littleton Police Department Twitter page to see up- dates on the situation. On the police department’s Tweets, comments from some parents expressed frustration that Littleton Public Schools was not communicating more during the lockdown.

One comment at 2:31 p.m. thanked the department for its updates, saying that the district had “communicated nothing” at that point. Another comment posted the next morning said, “And there was also no communication with the parents until 2 hours and it was over! Not cool.” e lockdown started at 1:47 p.m., according to the district. e district sent a text message and email to parents about the lockdown at approximately 3:27 p.m., just a few minutes before the school’s regular dismissal time and about 17 minutes before the lockdown lifted. Later in the evening, the district sent messages from Littleton High School Principal Cathy Benton and Superintendent Brian Ewert.

Yongue recognized there could be many reasons the information didn’t come faster from the district, but said it was still frustrating that the information came out as late as it did.

“I understand it’s a sticky situation, but I think lack of information is what causes people to speculate,” she said. “And it takes one student or one person to misinterpret something or mishear something or mistake something and that information spreads like wild re… I would like to have more information coming from them but like I said, we had the information coming from (the police department) and that is what I think kept a lot of parents as calm as you can be in a situation like that.”

Police spokesperson Sheera Poelman said her goal with police communications is to get information out quickly when it relates to public safety. e district, she said, is a different entity with di erent communication processes.

“Both the school system and the police department realized that we need to get our communication teams together,” she said. “So that way, if something like this happens in the future, we’re ready.”

Littleton Public Schools spokesperson Diane Leiker said the district was working to get information out as fast as they could while also juggling many other concerns during the incident, especially because it happened near dismissal time. ey were coordinating with law enforcement, guring out delayed dismissals, adjusting bus plans and also managing situations at the district’s three other schools that were on secure perimeter at the same time as the lockdown, she said.

“It’s important to note that (the school district’s) rst priority anytime that there’s an incident is to ensure the safety of our students and sta ,” she said. “We always want to communicate with our parents and our sta and our community as quickly as possible. We’re not always in a position to do that, though, because the information isn’t available to us or it’s changing so rapidly.”

She said the district learned from the experience and has made changes for the future.

“We wish that we could have communicated in a much more timely manner,” she said. “Every incident we have, we learn, and we certainly learned from that one. And so it is