Tag Archives: Bainbridge Island Television

City meetings back on the (digital) air

Bainbridge’s public access station may be gone, but live video coverage of the city’s meetings will continue.

Less than a week after Bainbridge Island Television broadcast its last city meeting, the city had a web-streaming system up and running.

The first webcast from the city’s website was last night.

City information technology manager Steve Miller, who was manning a computer and joystick in the spot where BITV’s equipment used to be, said the new system works well. From his compact command center, Miller was able to manage two remote-control cameras mounted on tripods. The glitches and delays prevalent in BITV’s web streaming were not a problem for the city’s system because City Hall has a higher-capacity Internet connection.

The meeting video was archived on the city’s website shortly after the webcast. You can view it here. Click on “video.” Mac users may have to download Flip4Mac to view the video.

The city is finalizing a short-term agreement with Bremerton Kitsap Access Television to also air the meetings on cable, probably on Channel 12 or 22, which have gone black after BITV shut down on Monday.

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BITV may shut down

BITV may have to shut down unless the city restores its funding.

The $296,000 BITV had expected from the city makes up more than 80 percent of the public access station’s 2011 budget.

Read my latest story HERE.

BITV is planning a protest next week and devoted its entire B News show to the cuts. You can see the show HERE or view a portion below.

Continue reading →

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Tuesday’s big cuts will mean big changes

On Tuesday night, city funding for arts and cultural organizations, community access television and a key human service organization was cut to zero.

A total of $763,000 was cut community service organizations by a sharply divided City Council.

The cuts mean no funding for public art, no more BITV-televised city meetings and possibly no more Health, Housing and Human Services Council.

No doubt there larger repercussions. It’s a sure thing that jobs in these and possibly other organizations will be lost, and that popular and important programs will be reduced or disappear completely.

Funding for the various organizations that provide assistance to disadvantaged residents, including Helpline House, the Boys & Girls Club, Bainbridge Youth Services and the Bainbridge Island Special Needs Foundation, was reduced from $320,000 to approximately $240,000.

Read more about the cuts HERE.

I’ve put in some calls to the affected organizations and hope to follow up with stories this week.

A few arts groups and their supporters have sent out messages today urging islanders to boost their contributions to One Call for All to help fill the funding gap.

One community service spending element that actually came out of Tuesday’s meeting with more money than expected was a “communication” fund to help downtown businesses affected by the planned Winslow Way reconstruction project. The fund rose from $35,000 to $40,000. How the fund will be spent will be decided by the Bainbridge Island Downtown Association (which had its entire $29,500 funding request denied on Tuesday). Mayor Bob Scales said BIDA may spend the Winslow Way fund on signs, temporary parking and various other strategies that encourage shoppers to patronize Winslow shops during the project.

“We’re imposing a vary worrisome event next year,” Councilman Barry Peters said of the Winslow Way project. “We need to communicate to our island to support our downtown in a year of great stress.”

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