Let’s Livestream Planning Board Meetings

I attended the Planning Board meeting on July 23.  There were four public hearings listed on the agenda.  There was no written description of the proposed projects or any site plan drawings made available to the public.  How can we expect reasonable comments from residents when there is no information available?

Town Government needs to improve the ways it communicates with the community.  Our Town outreach needs to be more dynamic; we need to find better ways to get residents involved in the major decisions of our Town.  Rather than being critical of residents, I feel the Town Board needs to act.

The Town of Malta has made two important investments that help to convey information to the public.  The first is the Town’s website and the second is the installation of cameras in town hall to live stream town board meetings.   The good news is that most people have computers and cellphones and are increasingly using these devices to stream news and entertainment.   

I believe that the Malta Town Board take action to implement a standard for all livestreaming events.  The video streaming standard should optimize videos for viewing on any device, computer, cellphone, or tablet.  The standard should include closed captioning and book-marking capability for easier review of the video recordings.  To implement the standard, the Town should have a dedicated person to be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the website and livestream system.  I believe that keeping residents informed and involved in how the Town grows will be a benefit for us all.

I am Rick Handley and I’m running for the Malta Town Board