Home alarm bells may soon be ringing throughout Essa

New houses in Essa may soon be required to have a mandatory alarm system installed.

Township mayor Dave Guergis suggested the mandatory installation at last week's council meeting as a means of reducing break and enters in the township.

"I've had a couple of calls from township residents who have had their homes broken into and they haven't had an alarm system," he said.

"I think that requiring new homes to have an alarm system has a lot of merits. If burglars know that a house has an alarm system then I think that they might be more likely to stay away," he said.

Deputy mayor Terry Dowdall agreed with the proposal.

"I certainly like to see a report about other municipalities policies on alarm systems. It should help with selling new houses."

Guergis added that the cost would be considerably cheaper if the alarm systems were installed when a house was being constructed.

" I agree that it would be a selling point for the sale of the house," he said.

Township staff will prepare a report on the proposal for a future meeting.