RACINE
— Funding for new BelleTV/CAR25 equipment and staff to run the
public access channel has been approved; now the question is when the
station will be up and running.
The
City Council on Tuesday approved up to $115,691.29 to get the channel
back up and running. The proposal that went before the Finance and
Personnel Committee on Jan. 13 was for up to $146,000, but the
committee decided to reduce it by $29,975 by deferring the purchase
of new security cameras for the City Council Chambers.
The
proposed $146,000 was reallocated from the city’s contingency fund
and budget items including additional police body camera data
storage, switch replacements for the IT Department and wireless
access points for community centers.
City
Administrator Jim Palenick said that the $29,975 for cameras for the
council chambers was reallocated back into police body camera data
storage. As of press time, the city did not have a clear timeline for
when the channel will be back on the air.
Background
When
the city signed a 23-year agreement in 1996 with Tele-Communications
Inc. (which was bought out by AT&T in 1998), it prompted
discussions about running a public access channel in Racine. At that
time, many communities in southeastern Wisconsin had public access
channels with studios where residents could produce original
programming.
The
idea was studied and debated for years until the council decided to
set aside $40,000 in the 2003 budget to start the channel. That fall,
Cable Access Racine 25, or CAR25, was launched.
In
addition to public meetings, CAR25 aired original programming from
the Racine Public Library, the Racine Rotary Post Prom and the Fourth
of July Parade. It televised memorials to 9/11 and the Laurel Clark
memorial service after her death on the Space Shuttle Columbia in
February 2003.
Originally,
the city decided to set aside 10% of franchise fees to fund the
channel. It had a studio and one to two employees who helped run it.
Former Mayor John Dickert pushed to have an outside firm run the
channel, which lasted for about a year, and then those positions were
cut.
Since
then the channel has been run by the city’s IT department. The
franchise fees, which for 2020 are estimated to be about $830,000,
are lumped in with the city’s general operations budget.
When
BelleTV/CAR25 first went dark in early December, the estimated cost
for replacement equipment alone was $30,000, which is the amount 6th
District Alderman Sandy Weidner had included in her request to get
the channel up and running again.
That
request went before the Committee of the Whole, a subcommittee of the
full City Council, which after a long discussion decided to send it
to the Finance and Personnel Committee. The decision granted city
staff more time to find answers to questions raised by aldermen and
put together a proposal that addressed concerns about the channel’s
longevity.
Several
members of the public and aldermen spoke at the Committee of the
Whole and Finance and Personnel meetings about the importance of
BelleTV/CAR25 for the public to access City Council meetings and a
hope that with the new system — and staff to operate it — it
could not only be restored but renew its previous levels of local
programming.From: https://journaltimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/belletv-car-funding-approved-but-no-clear-timeline-for-when/article_b19fab53-6129-5c54-8bfe-c72a446c814c.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1
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