Friday, October 24, 2014
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Video
The problem for William Barna, a police officer for 28 years and an instructor at the Youngstown State University Police Academy, was a simple one: How to keep someone from getting into a school room when others are sheltering there for safety.
The problem for William Barna, a police officer for 28 years and an instructor at the Youngstown State University Police Academy, was a simple one: how to keep someone from getting into a room when others are sheltering there for safety.
Locked doors often can be kicked in or defeated in another way. So Barna came up with a way to secure the door from the bottom and from the inside.
The result: The Bolo Stick, a simple, easy-to-use steel contraption bolted to the floor behind the door. A steel pin is inserted into the device to keep the door from opening. It can withstand up to two tons of force.
Barna, a police officer in Trumbull County, said he got to thinking about the problem when he was instructing cadets at the police academy on techniques dealing with mass shootings in a public place and how people are advised to go into a room and lock themselves inside and hide.
With the Bolo Stick, you can lock the door but also secure it at the bottom so it can’t open. To unsecure the device a key is used. Ideally, he said, the key would be in a place where only one person, such as a teacher, would have access to it, so the device can also be disabled if people have to flee.
Barna explained how the device works Thursday at a news event at the Small Business Development Center at Williamson Hall on the campus of YSU. Patricia K. Veisz, director of the SBDC and William D. Oliver, a consultant for the center, both said the project was easy to get behind.
“The market is endless, really,” Oliver said.
Barna said the device is not just good to use in public buildings or schools. He said anyone can use it in their home if they want to make a safe room. The device retails for $79.99, but discounts are offered when they are ordered in bulk, Barna said.
Already, the Trumbull Career and Technical Center is using the Bolo Stick, and orders are in for Newton Falls and Lordstown school districts. The Niles school district also is in the process of installing the device, Barna said.. Barna said all components are manufactured locally, and the product is 100 percent American-made and of high quality. Its simple design ensures it will last for a long time, Barna said.
“This is something that is going to last,” Barna said. “It’s going to outlast me.”
Barna said it took a little more than a year to hone the finished product. Oliver said the SBDC has been working with Barna for about eight months on the product, advising him on such matters as marketing and distribution and record keeping. However, the fact that Barna is passionate about his invention has put him in a good position because it makes him attentive to business matters.
“He has a real passion, and that makes a difference,” Veisz said.