Valley Lock & Maintenance

01/05/2024

Well guys it's time to make it official. Technically Valley Lock has been closed for a couple of years now but its taken some time to tie up contracts and ends. As you all know COVID killed our business then Parkinson's came along. I simply can't do the things I used to and returning to the 9-5 world makes it difficult to operate a business even if I wanted to. I want to thank everyone for years of dedicated and loyal patronage from our customers.

I've always said it takes thick skin to be the bad guy..... It was never easy being the guy to do foreclosures and evictions! Watching family photos, kids drawings, and keepsakes go in the trash was by far the hardest part of owning this business. I'm looking forward to a fresh start in 2024!

Main Street & Gillie Auto are still you go to guys for auto unlocks. If your locked out of your house Jamestown has a new locksmith to take our place. Chris with Bison Lock & Key is your guy! If you need keys, or you need locks pinned a little known secret that Joel over at Handy Hardware can repin most Schlage & Kwikset locks plus Handy Hardware has most of the available key blanks. As far as the local churches go - as long as i'm still breating the local churches will always get free side work from me.

Good luck & god bless!

09/24/2023

** For Immediate Release **

The uproar over the “Mortgage Compliance Officer” is NOT affiliated with us. Professional Property Services, LLC belongs to a new owner - to help the public better understand her is brief information:

Typically went someone hits 31 days past due a mortgage company hires us as private contractors to inspect and monitor the property. Are hazards present, is lawn / snow taken care of. We document, through photos, all 4 corners of the property, any hazards/issues, the house number and cross street photo. At 45 days past due they normally have us deliver papers and attempt personal contact.

At 61 days past due, if owner occupied, we monitor the property and the home goes into pre-foreclosure status. At 91 days past due the bank begins foreclosure action and Sheriff serve’s foreclosure paperwork. At 120 days past due foreclosure paperwork is filed with the county and a hearing is set - usually within 20 days. Upon foreclosure the Sheriff sells the property.

If the property is vacant / abandoned we are paid to secure the property and protect the asset (disconnect water service, make sure heat & gas is on) on top of maintaining the lawn / snow removal until the property is sold at auction. In some circumstances they may pay us to hire contractors to make repairs / or clean the place out.

Many people says that’s law enforcement job. Being behind on a mortgage or defaulting on a mortgage is a civil - not a criminal matter. Law Enforcement are prohibited from engaging in civil disputes.

Every contractor, working on behalf of a bank / mortgage company should have a copy of the work order on them. Contractors may not breach the peace or trespass while performing their duties. Taking photos from a public sidewalk, road, or alley is not illegal.

Finally, another reason we often were contracted was to determine if the bank was going to keep or sell your mortgage to another lender. Often we were asked to take detailed photos of a property for an internal appraisal. So as to not alarm people it was customary and courteous to knock on the door and explain to the owner the purpose of our visit.

Finally - we stopped providing Mortgage Field Services & Eviction Services in February of 2022. We stopped providing public locksmith services in June of 2022 only servicing our law enforcement and commercial customers under contract.

Public Safety Alert: This man was observed on camera in SW Jamestown walking up to the door of a residence. He is wearing a SECURITY hat and is wearing a badge. We are sharing this for public awareness as this is not a local law enforcement officer. We are unsure of his intentions. If anyone has any more information or sees this man around our community please reach out to Stutsman County Dispatch 701-252-1000 .

***Update*** We have made contact with this individual and he is a mortgage compliance officer out of Fargo. He was talked to about wearing his security hat and was advised not to do so any further.

03/05/2023

When you work full time and need to get 72 MX12 Restricted Cylinders pinned and over 300 Restricted keys cut everyone jumps in! New master key system for three apartment complexes in Jamestown! With the MX line of restricted keyway products it allows property managers true key control knowing no duplicate keys are floating around. No unauthorized copies of the Master Keys are floating around!

Our MX12 & MX13 products are all custom keyed and pinned with a combination of security pins to help prevent common bypass methods such as bumping and picking. We can help increase your profitability, help reduced unauthorized tenants and access, and give you a piece of mind. Only thing we can’t do is help your tenants find their lost keys in the sofa 😂

03/05/2023

What an insane run! Huge shout out to MVP, America’s largest national service provider, for our 5th year partnering with us for security at Maggellan Pipelines! We take great pride in our restricted key systems protecting America’s most critical infrastructure.

Valley Lock is proud to be BEST Factory Trained and Certified Dealer. We also offer restricted key systems from Schlage, Medeco and the MX10, MX12, and MX13! When preventing unauthorized duplication is critical give us a call. Our systems are so secure not even another locksmith can get our key blanks to cut keys! We also install, maintain and service the InstaKey system for four national service providers in Central North Dakota.

03/03/2023

For today’s challenge we started with a security cage upgrade at the State Hospital for commissary, a quick run over to Lisbon to upgrade a gas station to restricted key system and to install a new cash drop safe. Then over to the courthouse to pre-wire the new access control system.

On the old system as time went on they expanded and installed multiple controllers to limit access. Now all controllers are networked and the system admin can control everywhere with one screen. They no longer need one controller for the Sheriff’s Department, one for court staff, one for county offices, and another for classified staff. They can now assign user specific access to every door including time restrictions for access.

The biggest improvement of this system is the ability to use existing credentials! The Highway Patrol can now access the breathalyzer without waiting for a deputy! The vaults now have mag locks and restrict access without staff being forced to constantly enter the combination during business hours. Best of all it will link to the time clock automatically clocking hourly staff in and out!

03/03/2023

It’s been a while since we posted! Lately we have been flooded with calls from angry people. Folks two locksmiths have passed and one retired, the locksmith trade is suffering from a lack of new blood. We don’t have the luxury of being in Fargo - 80% of our time is spent driving folks, we try to group service calls in a geographical area to maximize what we can get done. We also have to consider severity of the calls, our public schools and hospitals will always take priority.

Our second priority is our contract clients including the six county Sheriff’s Department we are contracted with. I keep getting calls with angry people because we won’t program car keys or do safe work - those are services we only provide to our contract clients. We are 90% Industrial / commercial, 9% Institutional and 1% Safe & Auto. Please understand we can’t do it all and I apologize if you have to have your car towed to Fargo or to the dealer we just don’t have the manpower or time plus this is a service already available to you at your local dealership.

Thank you.

07/11/2022

01/02/2022

Just a reminder, effective today our hours, services, and billing policy changes go into effect!

Jamestown Office:

Monday - CLOSED
Tuesday from 9AM - 5PM
Wednesday - CLOSED
Thursdays from 9AM - Noon
Friday - CLOSED

Valley City Main Office

Monday - By Appointment Only
Tuesdays - Closed
Wednesdays - By Appointment Only
Thursdays 1PM - 5PM
Fridays 9AM - 5PM

** NEW BILLING POLICY ** Emergency service calls will require an advanced payment and digital signature authorizing the prepayment of all service charge and mileage before we leave. If you cancel the service, or are gone on arrival your account will be charged for the full amount of the service call and mileage. If you file a charge back or dispute the information will be turned over to the Barnes County State's Attorney for prosecution as Theft of Services.

12/25/2021

Merry Christmas from all of us at Valley Lock & Maintenance!

12/21/2021

Time to try something new! In an effort to cut down on wasted travel time constantly traveling from location to location we will be switched to a fixed service schedule. We will schedule service calls from our Jamestown Satellite Location:

Tuesday from 9AM - 5PM
Thursdays from 9AM - Noon

Valley City Main Office

Thursdays 1PM - 5PM
Fridays 9AM - 5PM

We will continue to offer appointments outside of this schedule on a rush, contract, or emergency basis. Routine service work will now be scheduled accordingly to make us operate more efficiently. This will drastically reduce the amount of needless wasted travel time from location to location and will provide a much greater value to you, our valued customers.

12/02/2021

So this is the difference between the maintenance man and the locksmith. Nice little security upgrade for this childcare center. With the old system they just took off the end caps, wired up a micro switch to kill the power. Any little kid could touch the bar and escape.

The new system is professionally installed using a pressure sensitive bar connected to the fire alarm system. If some hits the REX (Request to Exit) bar the magnets will prevent them from leaving until access is granted. No more escaped kids!