Security stepped up at city offices

In the wake of a reported break in and burglary of the Elkhorn Fire Station in Sun Valley, the city is taking extra measures to prevent something like that from happening again.

Sun Valley police were called to the station in March after an employee reported missing documents, both paper and electronic.

In an interview with the Idaho Mountain Express Monday, Mayor Dewayne Briscoe said that after he was sworn into office in January, he had doors to city offices re-keyed and had staff begin to move files from the station to City Hall. That process had not been completed at the time of the burglary, he said.

The city also implemented a new security system with marked keys, some of which are traceable, and programmed new keypad entry codes for doors accessible in that manner.

The city has reclaimed its master keys, which have been stored in a safe with limited access.

"Even with the change of administration, some people in administration [positions] had not turned in everything," he said.

A new IT server is in place and access is greatly restricted, Briscoe said.

"We found we were extremely vulnerable to penetration," he said.

Passwords are more secure and they are changed often, he added.

Rebecca Meany: rmeany@mtexpress.com

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.