Hit “Schedules & Agendas” on our menu at left to see town government agendas each week.
April 11, 2008
by Christine Yeres
Last summer, before we first published our online community newspaper, we grabbed as many of you as we could and said, “You know all those meetings you don’t have time to attend, and, when you DO attend them, you don’t know what anyone’s talking about? Well, that’s where we think NewCastleNOW.org will help.”
What’s coming up; what’s already happened
We’ve beefed up our “Schedules & Agendas” menu item to help you know what’s going on when you do have the time. Each week you can check the agendas issued by school, town, planning and zoning boards to find a brief idea of what’s coming up. Additionally, our stories and archives will tell you about past meetings, and what your representatives are doing and saying about the issues.
How to use “Search” box
Everything we’ve ever published resides on our site. You can find it through the “Search” box, at the top of each page. Here’s a very important piece of advice: use quotation marks around your search words. Otherwise you’ll pull up a list a mile long.
Now there’s “Video on Demand”
Some things simply must be seen to be believed, and now that NCCTV offers video on demand through its website, , you’ll have the chance to view a meeting on your own timetable. The current on demand video offerings include community and PTA events, school board meetings, town board, planning and zoning board meetings. The picture is small and YouTube-sized, but the sound is quite good.
School Board rotates each year to a different school, but, of the schools, only Bell and Greeley have “live” potential
School board meetings take place at Seven Bridges Middle School this school year. A videographer tapes the meetings and board members wear lapel mikes. The audio quality varies from passable to poor. The Seven Bridges meeting room doesn’t have the benefit of its own sound system and has no capability for live broadcasts. The school board moves to a different school each year. Robert E. Bell Middle School and Horace Greeley High School are capable of broadcasting live, but not easily, not yet, and the answer involves Verizon.
Millwood Board of Fire Commissioners has best audio
Of all the government meetings run on NCCTV’s cable access channel, the audio from the Millwood Board of Fire Commissioners meetings is consistently of high quality, but they are not yet available as video on demand. Their meetings are also some of the liveliest in New Castle.
Time management at meetings
The various meetings also take different approaches to time management. The school board provides few time markers in its agendas. On the other hand, the town board provides times for each agenda item and keeps very close to them. Their meetings clip right along.
If something interests you, it’s all available on demand
Whenever you have the time, you can find us here online. We’ll provide meeting agendas beforehand, reports of meetings afterwards, archives through our search box at the top of each of our pages, and a link to watch meetings on demand through NCCTV.org.
Copyright 2008 NewCastleNOW.org