Gated communities given a year to install codeless entries for emergency crews

It takes just a few hours to program and set up the codeless gate-entry systems that all gated communities in Beaufort County must have within a year, says the owner of a local company that already has installed 138 systems countywide in the past five years.

"As soon as we tell a developer or (property) owner about it, they think it’s a great idea," said Bob All, owner of Custom Security Specialists in Okatie. "All of them have had 100 percent response to it."

The systems give fire, police and emergency medical services a quick way inside gated communities. Many systems currently in place require crews to punch an access code on a keypad before the gate opens.

The Beaufort County Council voted unanimously at its meeting Monday to require all new gated communities to have codeless systems on each gate and gave existing communities without them 12 months to retrofit their systems at their expense.

Gates serving commercial developments also would need to be outfitted, according to the ordinance.

Six communities in the county already had codeless systems installed as of May; about 80 others will need to convert, officials have said.

One conforming gate entry system is Click2Enter, a radio-controlled gate opener that operates at the touch of a button on a radio transmitter. Systems can cost more than $1,000, and failing to comply with the ordinance carries a $1,000 fine.

"I do think this is a very significant improvement to public safety," Council Chairman Weston Newton said Monday. "I truly feel we've made Beaufort County a safer place with the passage of this ordinance."

According to All, it works this way:

• Each gate access entry system can store up to 50 different radio frequencies, including those for fire, police and EMS vehicles.

• Emergency crews arrive at the gate and see a shield-shaped sticker "just about the size of your hand," All said. "It's a reminder that, 'I need to pick up my radio microphone in my vehicle.'"

• The first push of the radio-transmitter button would turn on the system, which operates with its own power supply. The second push would open the gate.

"For (police), fire and EMS, seconds count," All said.

Several property managers and property owners association presidents of gated communities around the county said Thursday they are aware of the ordinance but have not yet arranged to have new systems installed.

Others — like Mike Hagen of the Rose Hill Property Owners Association in Bluffton and Ted Bartlett, general manager and chief operating officer at Dataw Island — said they already have gates manned 24 hours by security guards and feel secure.

The ordinance, however, does not exempt communities with manned gates.

"We currently have a gatehouse," Bartlett said. "We're investigating a system that would require you to have a decal, but ... we don’t plan on installing a (coded) entry, especially considering the ordinance."