Revised 9:47 a.m. Nov. 20, 2018

By CRAIG FREILICH

North Country Now

POTSDAM – After a disturbance recently at the village offices in the Civic Center, the village administrator says he will be taking steps to increase security “to protect my employees.”

There was “a recent incident here” that has led Greg Thompson to decide to find a way of “closing off doors to prevent the public from having access to any employee at any time.”

At the Board of Trustees meeting Nov. 19, in his regular report to the board, Thompson said it was clear to him that the employee involved feared for his or her safety from a member of the public, and with the increase in stories around the country of shootings, he feels obliged to act.

“And that’s all I’ll say about it,” he said. But he explained his position in more detail the next day,

“It was just that the situation made me realize that we do not, in my opinion, do enough to ensure the safety of our employees in the front offices. In light of everything going on in our country I think that it is imperative we do what we can to make our employees feel safe while here at work. This particular situation was not anything that ever escalated, it just got me thinking about such issues and I would like to follow through on some safety upgrades,” Thompson said.

Village Clerk/Treasurer Lori Queor said she agreed the stories we are all hearing in the news about violence by people with a grudge and a gun is a factor in making village employees and employees anywhere feel there is a potential for violence while on the job.

And while the incident in question did not become that serious, it did bring home the potential for a bad outcome.

“We’re hearing things about shootings everywhere,” she said.

“We sometimes get customers who are unhappy,” she said explaining this incident.

“The customer wanted his own way. We get taxpayers, people paying water and sewer bills,” she said, and people who have dealings with a code violation or any of an array of village functions who can express their dissatisfaction pointedly.

This incident did not escalate to the point where police were called in, she said.

Queor said the village “will make some small changes here” to protect employees.