The Township Council has introduced an ordinance that would create the position for a video/audio specialist to ensure that council meetings and other special events around West Windsor will be broadcast on the local cable channel.
According to Business Administrator Chris Marion, $2,”500 was budgeted in the 2008 budget to meet the demand for taping all of the council’s meetings.##M:[more]##
Under the cable agreement approved by both West Windsor and Plainsboro townships with the WW-P school district, the station manager splits time between the three parties, and the two townships fund his salary. The school district supplies equipment and a portion of his time. The school district is responsible for maintaining and equipping the bulletin board and over-ride systems and the district’s television studios. The station manager handles the municipal and school programming for the channel.
Lately, West Windsor’s meetings have been taped by volunteers, but prior to that, the station manager was spending a lot of time at West Windsor meetings. He expressed concern to Marion that “we were over our amount of allotted hours per month,” Marion explained. “We met with school district representatives, the Cable TV Advisory Board Chair Michael Huey, and our staff to talk about putting in funding for the township to go out and hire people interested in taping council meetings and other special events as they come up.”
If the ordinance is passed, Marion says the township would advertise the position and hopes to get a pool of individuals interested in covering the meetings. The people who the township hires will be called upon on an as-needed, per diem basis.
The wage plan in the ordinance calls for the workers to be paid between $50 and $200 per meeting, depending on the meeting’s length, and subject to the discretion of Marion and other staff members. “The purpose was really to give it some flexibility,” Marion said. “Sometimes in West Windsor it’s difficult to predict the length of the meeting. Our primary goal is to have the meetings taped.”
Marion says the idea is to evolve the position over time, and paying on a per-meeting basis will hopefully attract interested applicants and give township staff flexibility in being able to see what works best. “I don’t think anyone’s going to want to tape a council meeting for less than $50,” he said.
Marion said the township is looking to attract people like college students who may be looking for experience or retirees looking to make extra money. “They’re going to have to be trained in utilization of the camera and equipment in the back of council chambers,” he said. Ultimately, the township wants to be able to tape the meetings that are held off-site as well, in places like the senior center and the Schenck farmstead.
“We really needed to get something up and running,” Marion said. “We’re going to evaluate it as we go.” He said in the future, as the position evolves, and township officials learn what works best, a few reliable individuals may end up going hourly, but right now, the wages are based on the length of the meetings. A public hearing is scheduled for Monday, October 6.
Sewer Bonds. In other business during the September 15 meeting, the council introduced a bond ordinance to pay for a variety of sewer projects for this year.
The $6.7 million bond ordinance would cover projects including work to be done at the Southfield Road pump station, South Post Road pump station, Heatherfield pump station, the Meadow Road sewer project, and emergency sewer repairs.##M:[more]##
The council also approved bills for emergency repairs associated with a sewage spill at 95 North Post Road in August. It paid $32,”245.17 to contractor Ken Conover & Sons and $12,”337.87 to contractor Scheideler Excavating Co. for the work. Since the spill, public works employees have been working to identify problem areas to be worked on immediately. Other funds associated with the emergency repair are part of the larger bond ordinance. A public hearing will be on Monday, October 6.
Meeting Rescheduled. The Township Council’s regular business meeting on Monday, September 29, has been canceled and is rescheduled for Monday, October 6, at 7 p.m.
