SOUTHWEST RANCHES—
A routine 911 call turned into an embarrassing mixup for two neighboring municipalities when three Pembroke Pines police officers were forced to come to halt in the middle of the street, blocked by a white, locked gate that no one could open.
Southwest Ranches says it's a misunderstanding. Pembroke Pines says its police officers weren't at fault.
Either way, the residents — torn between two feuding municipalities — say they're tired of the mishaps that have compromised their safety.
"They're horrible," Southwest Ranches resident Jill Aronofsky said of the gates. "I don't feel they're very neighborly."
It was the first time Pines police officers attempted to open one of the three controversial gates that divide Southwest Ranches and Pembroke Pines.
The town says it installed the gates more than a year ago to stop cars and trucks from using the neighborhood as a cut-through to go north to Griffin Road.
Residents in favor of the gates say they have reduced traffic and made the roads safer. But those opposed, say the gates are a nuisance and that the town installed them out of retaliation after Pembroke Pines interfered with the town's plans to build an immigration detention center.
"It's strained the relationship in the neighborhood by putting this barrier between us," said Southwest Ranches resident Mike Hanley.
The gates were thrown into the spotlight again in September when 48-year-old mother Maritza Medina was broadsided and killed by a fleeing homicide suspect as she traveled through the intersection of U.S. 27 and Griffin Road on her way home to Pembroke Pines. Some residents and family members claimed that Medina would have avoided that intersection if the gates hadn't been installed.
Still, despite all of the controversy, residents were repeatedly reassured that the gates would not put their safety at risk. Town officials told residents that all emergency responders, including the Broward Sheriff's Office and Pembroke Pines police, would be able to open the gates and access the communities.
But on Nov. 3, it became clear that wasn't the case.
"It's the first time that police couldn't come through — [a clicker] is supposed to be in the officer's car," said Aronofsky.
Pines police couldn't open the gates on their way to a possible break-in near Southwest 205th Avenue and Southwest 48th Place. BSO called the Pines police as back-up but the incident turned out to be nothing — the house alarm was activated when a window broke.
The clickers were removed from the officers' cars more than a year ago when Southwest Ranches asked for them back, said Pembroke Pines City Manager Charlie Dodge.
"Our police department collected them and kept them in a secure place," said Dodge of the gate clickers. He said Southwest Ranches asked for them back when the town ended its fire department contract with Pembroke Pines — a fallout from the stopped immigration detention center.
But Southwest Ranches denies that, saying that the town never requested the clickers back.
"Pines made a decision to do that on their end," said Southwest Ranches Town Administrator Andy Berns. "We bought them and gave them to [Pines] — we wanted them to have emergency access."
As a result of the incident, Southwest Ranches requested that Pines police officers return the clickers to their cars. To comply, Pines requested that Southwest Ranches provide the city with 200 clickers so that each officer can have one.
"Our primary responsibility is the health and safety of the residents. We'd never want to do anything to compromise that," said Berns.
hcarney@tribune.com or 954-356-4188
Source: southwest - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGR38DOhgInqZK6AkT_1XE66X3cGg&url=http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-sw-ranches-gates-mishap-20131114,0,7013607.story
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