Borough business may get live Web presence

October 28, 2005

DARRELL L. BREESE\Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - The Mat-Su Borough Assembly has had a presence on the Internet for nearly six years, but the borough's clerk hopes to enhance that presence by adding streaming audio for assembly and other meetings held in the assembly chambers.

Borough Clerk Michelle McGehee and her staff are implementing a three-pronged upgrade to the borough's high-tech and sound equipment, which calls for purchasing laptop computers for use by assembly members, installation of a new audio system in assembly chambers and the possibility of broadcasting assembly meetings via streaming audio on the Internet.

&#8220We've been in the process of increasing our presence on the 'net for years,” McGehee said. &#8220Earlier this year we started publishing assembly packets online and we hope to add to that. Our entire goal is to make the assembly meetings more accessible to the public.”

The computers and sound system upgrades were approved as part of the 2006 fiscal year operating budget and the borough purchasing department is finalizing acquisition of the equipment.

McGehee told the assembly she had a preliminary meeting with information technology department staff Oct. 6 to discuss the possibility of broadcasting assembly meetings on the borough's Web site.

&#8220Right now, everything is just in the preliminary stages,” McGehee said. &#8220We need to determine what equipment is necessary, if any additional bandwidth would be required and get assembly approval for any costs that would result.”

According to McGehee, the IT department informed her that it is possible to implement the streaming audio for public access pending the purchase of a media server and other necessary hardware. She said the new sound system and an existing FTR ReporterDeck allows for streaming audio.

McGehee said having streaming audio available will help involve people from all ends of the borough, which stretches from Denali National Park in the north to the Matanuska River bridge along the Glenn Highway heading into Anchorage.

Along the same lines of providing better access to the public, the $25,000 sound system upgrade will improve the audio quality in assembly chambers and allow for a high-quality recording of all meetings.

The addition of laptops to the tools available for assembly members is part of the plan to move to a paperless system of handling borough business by assembly members, eliminating the reams of paper used to prepare meeting packets.

&#8220Going online and adding computers is something that my office has been working on for awhile,” McGehee said.

&#8220I am really excited about the possibility of having the meetings broadcast on the Web. But we will need the money to do it. It might have to wait until the next budget cycle to get the required funding, but I'm going to continue to investigate what we need to do to make it a reality.”

Contact Darrell L. Breese at 352-2267 or darrell.breese@frontiersman.com.