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Martins Ferry City Council May Live Stream Meetings Online

Photo by Shelley Hanson / In the background, a laptop computer can be seen atop a filing cabinet recording a recent Martins Ferry City Council meeting. Shown talking are City Auditor Rita Randall, left, and Councilman Robert Hunker.

Martins Ferry City Council plans to stream its meetings live on the internet as a means to reach more of its constituents who can’t attend the gatherings in person.

Martins Ferry City Service Director Chris Cleary said because the city building’s council chambers are not handicapped accessible, the city wants to stream the meetings to allow people to watch via computer — at home, at the public library or any other location with internet access. Council chambers is situated on the city building’s second floor.

During the past two council meetings, Cleary said he tested recording the meetings via his laptop computer’s camera. It sat atop a filing cabinet in the front of the room.

“We got it all on camera. … It picked up everyone’s voice,” Cleary said.

He noted the idea for streaming the meetings came from Councilman John Davies.

“We should be able to archive them, but I’m not sure yet,” Cleary said. “We’re doing what we can to be more accessible to people.”

When the bugs get worked out, Cleary said the video link would be accessed by people via the city’s website through YouTube.

Cleary said he would like to get an upgraded webcam system to stream and record the meetings as money comes available in the city’s coffers. He noted mayor’s court has its own video recording system, but it is not compatible with what the city is trying to do with the internet.

“There’s a learning curve,” Cleary added.

To make it easier for people to attend meetings, council has held meetings at city fire stations in the past. City officials said previously it would take an enormous amount of money to make the city building handicapped accessible, which is why the building will remain as is.

The city building does not have an elevator. There are two flights of stairs to reach the chamber and other offices. Years ago a study was conducted by an engineer that revealed it would simply be too expensive to make the building handicapped accessible. The engineer said it would probably be cheaper to build a new structure that was handicapped accessible rather renovating the existing city building.

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