About four years ago, someone climbed one of Kutztown's water storage tanks, leaving footprints

and alarming borough workers.

They didn't know who had been there or what they did at the tank, which stores 750,000 to 1 million gallons of water that's pumped directly to customers.

So, Kutztown shut down the tank and spent more than $6,000 on tests to make sure the water supply hadn't been compromised, which it hadn't.

But the incident was a lesson in security the borough didn't ignore.

Kutztown recently purchased a $20,000 system with sensors and high-end cameras for security at both of its ground storage tanks, said Frank P. Caruso, Kutztown's director of information technology.

Installed in May by LANtek, a computer network services company in Kutztown, the system has dramatically changed the way the borough monitors its tanks.

Not long after it went live, someone walked near one of the tanks, and the system sent an alert to Caruso's cell phone.

Caruso logged onto a computer to see what the camera was recording. He recognized the person as a worker checking a nearby communications tower.

Had Caruso not realized who it was, he was prepared to call the police.

"The immediate notification, to be able to see it right away in a live mode as if we were standing there, is invaluable to us," he said.

When the system detects motion, it sends alerts to phones and/or e-mail addresses. It also tracks the movement until the person or object is no longer visible.

The equipment can be programmed to recognize non-threatening objects, like birds, groundhogs and other wildlife, reducing the number of false alarms.

Kutztown provides water to about 5,000 people in Kutztown and Maxatawny Township. Its two storage tanks are at separate locations, which officials declined to identify, citing security concerns.

Following the incident four years ago, Kutztown purchased standard video cameras, but that system recorded continuously and could not distinguish between people and wildlife.

That necessitated watching tape - sometimes hours of it - to see if something important had happened.

Kutztown used a grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development to pay for the new system, Caruso said.

Its sensors and cameras are intended to keep the water supply safe and to save the borough the time and expense of testing water should someone trespass, Caruso said.

"Knowing it's there might even prevent people from trying to do anything," Caruso said.

LANtek is pleased to have been able to provide both technical expertise and the io image products to the Borough of Kutztown. For more information about intelligent video surveillance, click here.