With support from the School Committee, Harvard’s Community Cable Access Committee has prepared preliminary plans to move the town’s cable studio and offices to a new permanent location in the basement of the Bromfield School. Members of the cable committee and the School Committee presented the plans to the Board of Selectmen Tuesday night.
The currently under-utililized space in the basement of Bromfield will be renovated to include studio space, classroom space, and two accessible bathrooms. (Courtesy graphic) CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
The plan grew out of discussions between the cable committee and the School Committee, cable committee member Stu Sklar told Selectmen. The station’s current location, in the basement of the old library, is “virtually unusable” for program production, Sklar said; it’s too small and there’s too much noise caused by people walking on the wooden floor above it. The current location has no quiet audio recording and editing space and the training area is limited to one workstation, Sklar said.
“We’d like a home that would truly be usable space,” he said.
In its mission statement and five-year plan, the cable committee identified three components of community access television, Sklar said: public, education, and government.
“We ranked ourselves lowest in the educational part because we haven’t gotten the kids involved the way we hoped,” he said.
The cable committee called the relocation plan a “community-wide win-win.” The cable station will get a permanent, usable space, and the schools will get a videography facility for extracurricular activities, and, potentially, the accredited curriculum, Sklar said in his presentation.
“We have Bromfield alumni that are award-winning filmmakers, and we should sort of nurture that a little bit,” Sklar said.
School Committee member Kirsten Wright told Selectmen the cable move is “really an exciting opportunity for the School Committee.” She said she spoke to some students who had done their senior service projects at the cable studio and they told her it was an authentic experience and an opportunity to contribute to the community, but they wished the facility was more accessible to students.
“Clearly, the cable committee needs a home,” Wright said. “We would love to provide that opportunity for the cable committee, and we would love the opportunity for our students as well.”
The cable committee’s plans—assembled with pro bono help from Maugel Associates and local developer Lou Russo—calls for a 1,700-square-foot facility containing a studio with a control room, an area with several editing workstations and the station director’s desk, two accessible bathrooms, and a small server room. It would be located in a southeast corner of the school, with an entrance near the amphitheater area.
“Probably, this is one of the best spaces in town that’s under-utilized that we can go into,” said cable committee member Jonathan Williams.
Funding proposals for the project are currently “highly fluid,” Sklar said. The cable committee estimated it will cost about $69,000 for the interior work and $39,000 for accessibility work on the exterior. It proposed Selectmen take the $69,000 from its Rantoul Trust Fund and the School Committee make a capital request for fiscal year 2014 for the $39,000. The cable committee estimated it will spend around $87,000 from its reserve fund and revenues for equipment and hookups.
Selectmen spoke in support of the project, but balked at the $69,000/$39,000 split between their board and the School Committee.
“I continue to see a lot of advantages to having the cable space located in our educational facility,” said Selectman Ron Ricci. “I’m supportive. I do think there are things we can work out on the 69-39 split.”
Sklar said the split was “not set in stone.”
Selectman Tim Clark said he “wholeheartedly” supported moving the cable operation to the Bromfield School, but asked if the charter of the Rantoul Trust called for it to be used only for municipal spending.
“It’s for any item that the Board of Selectmen want,” said Town Administrator Tim Bragan.
