The Beaver Canyon camera on Hiester Street is down, but not out.

Just before midnight Friday, the surveillance camera and streetlight on the corner of Hiester Street and Beaver Avenue was knocked down by an recreational vehicle in a hit-and-run accident.

Police originally said the camera was destroyed and needed to be replaced, which would have cost anywhere from $5,000 to $7,500.

However, State College Police Chief Tom King was pleased to report yesterday that the camera remains fully operational. He said that once the camera was hooked up to the monitors inside the police station, it was still able to record, pan, zoom and tilt.

He said Wacor Electronics, the company that installed the borough's three cameras, promised him the cameras could take a beating, and he has now been convinced.

"Everything's working. It doesn't appear that we're going to have any loss," King said.

But he added that a new pole for the streetlight is needed, and the borough may incur some cost for the replacement.

Mark Whitfield, public works director, said a new pole and the foundation it must sit on will cost about $6,000, not including minor labor and installation costs.

The cost is high, but the borough insured all of its streetlights after about 40 were destroyed during the 1998 riot in downtown State College, King said.

John Marchek, the borough's risk manager, said insurance will cover the damage, but a deductible of $1,000 must be paid.

"If they determine who did it, then we recover that from their vehicle's insurance," Marchek said.

To prevent something like this from happening again, King said the camera will be placed on a different pole on the opposite side of Beaver Avenue. When the person made the left turn onto Beaver, they cut it too tight," King said.

Relocating the camera will eliminate the chance of large vehicles crashing into it while making a left turn.

King said that since Wacor is already doing some other work with parking garages in the borough, they would be able to reinstall the camera using the existing fiber-optic cable.

King said that besides this recent hit and run, he has been pleased with the operation of the cameras.

He said it is still too early to determine the cameras' actual value for law enforcement, but their operation has been flawless so far.

"I'm more interested in how they are over the course of a year or so, not just over a couple of weeks," he said.

The cameras have not been used in any investigations yet, and officers have not monitored them live at any time. However, on weekends, there is always a supervising officer close to the cameras who can turn them on if he or she hears about an incident in Beaver Canyon, King said.

He said police presence in the area will remain heavy on weekends and during large events.

"[The cameras] were never intended to eliminate police officers," King said.

The two other surveillance cameras are attached to streetlight posts at Locust Lane and McAllister Street along Beaver Avenue.