Village trustees refused Monday to change the face of Lake Zurich’s Finance Department.
The board voted 5-0 against adding a permanent safety glass partition and installing an elaborate security system in the main lobby of the Finance Department, which is in the Village Hall.
Cashiers are now located behind an open counter in the department and have a “panic button” in the event of trouble, village officials said.
At an earlier meeting, Trustee Jim Weakly had raised concerns about the safety of the cashiers who work the Saturday morning shift alone.
Lake Zurich Police Chief Fred Clauser, village administrator John Dixon and village finance director Richard F. Ratkowski all studied the current layout over the past week.
The three officials determined that the likelihood of robbery was minimal, and there was no need for a more elaborate alarm system that would have included cameras. However, Clauser and Ratkowski recommended the installation of the safety glass, while Dixon disagreed.
Dixon said the amount of cash being processed on Saturdays is small, and he didn’t like the idea of putting “barriers between the residents and the person to whom they are talking.”
