No more jingling keys on a key ring—by the end of the month, town employees and volunteers will gain entry to Town Hall using electronic key fobs instead.

The new secure entry system was proposed by Police Chief Michael Spera as a way to ensure that exterior doors at Town Hall and the Recreation Center are locked after evening meetings and when evening events end—and that they remain locked throughout the night.

“We’ve had some problems, here and there, after meetings at night. When Don Lucas has arrived early the next morning, the doors were open. It’s also a big deal at Parks & Rec.,” said First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr., at the Aug. 8 Board of Selectman’s meeting. “Putting in a key fob system is for the safety and security of the Town Hall building.”

Last week contractors had already started pulling new wiring at Town Hall to connect each exterior door’s key pad to the system on a computer server that will keep track of door entries and door exits outside of normal building hours. The new entry system should be ready to go live by the end of August.

Before the transition from keys to key fobs is complete, each employee will need to have a unique electronic key fob. Fortuna said that all fobs will be issued by the Old Saybrook Department of Police Services.

Once the electronic entry system is live, the system will be programmed to open Town Hall’s exterior doors automatically at 8:30 a.m. in the morning and to be locked automatically at 10 p.m. each night. Individual key fobs can be used by town employees or volunteers to access Town Hall outside of normal hours.

Town board and commission members are among the volunteers that will likely need to have their own unique key fobs to enter the Town Hall or Recreation Center outside of normal hours. That’s because some commission meetings at Town Hall already go later than 10 p.m. just as some Recreation Center events extend beyond the 10 p.m. time.”

In last week’s selectmen’s meeting, Fortuna said the cost to install the new key fob entry pads, the fobs, and the Town Hall wiring to link the pads to the computer server is estimated at between $11,000 and $12,000. The funds to pay for the project will come from the town’s Emergency Management budget.