A new security system is making Hobson City Town Hall and the nearby City Library and Senior Center a little safer from burglaries --- that’s the hope of the town’s council and Mayor Alberta McCrory.

The system cost around $4,000, McRory said after Monday evening’s council meeting. She added it was money well spent, because of a string of thefts that started at Town Hall as early as 2009.

“We’ve been broken into three times,” McRory said. “That security system was definitely needed.”

The system was installed by the security company EHT Security Systems two weeks ago, McCrory said, and additional video cameras have been added since then to cover areas inside the library and behind the building, formerly known as the C.E. Hanna School.

In August, the Town Hall was broken into and a new computer --- used to upgrade Hobson City’s financial information --- was stolen, McCrory said. A small safe, a laptop computer and printer were also stolen.

Another break-in at the Town Hall in February of 2011 saw the theft of keys to a city-owned vehicle, McRory said. No arrests have been made in any of those thefts, McCrory said.

The system will be monitored by EHT’s Birmingham station, which will alert the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office if an alarm is triggered. Hobson City has been without its own police department since budget shortfalls shuttered the city’s department in 2005.

In other business, the council:

-voted to appoint Sheila Jones to the position of city clerk on a temporary, six-month basis. The council met in executive session to discuss two nominees for the position, which used to be held by former clerk Jessie Lancaster, who has been clerk since 2009.

-reappointed three current city employees, including Senior Citizen Director Rosa Morris, Librarian Donna Ross and Maintenance Worker Alfred Mason.