By Tiffany Razzano
The channel currently airs all village Board of Trustees meetings as well as South Side High School games. The village is seeking to upgrade the camera equipment used to tape the board meetings and to expand the channel's programming.
John Peters, the village's director of information technology, says he has been given authorization by the acting village administrator, Mike Schussheim, to buy a new JVC professional digital video camera, which costs $15,000. The camera now being used is 12 years old. Peters is hoping that next year's village budget will allow him to purchase additional equipment. "I'm looking to put some remote cameras in Village Hall so we can have multiple shots," he said. "Right now, when we videotape a meeting we only have one stationary camera."
In the Village Hall comments in the November issue of This Month in Rockville Centre, Trustee Jeanne Farnan Mulry said, "Our camera equipment is from 1994, and our cable station equipment resembles dorm room equipment circa 1980."
"We want to televise every meeting," said Mayor Eugene Murray. "We need a lot of equipment. Our equipment is very old." The Board of Trustees is hoping to expand the programming offered on Channel 18 to include zoning and Planning Board meetings and possibly Board of Trustees briefing sessions. "I know [residents] like the board meetings, so maybe they'll like the others, too," Murray said.
"Residents throughout the village are impacted by the decisions made not only by the Board of Trustees, but also by those made by the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals, but not everyone can attend these meetings," said Trustee Suzanne Sullivan. "That is why it is important to open up our local government and air these meetings on our village channel."
Sullivan also hopes to see meetings available for downloading from the village Web site. "There are many people in this village, myself included, that do not subscribe to Cablevision and would welcome the opportunity to access the meetings where so many important decisions that affect us all are made," she said.
Comments? TRazzano@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 221.
