The Longmont City Council, Tuesday night, recommended that Longmont’s public access television station get $117,000 in one-time funding to maintain its current services, including building the station’s makerspace capabilities.
The unanimous vote came a week after the city council opted to give Longmont Public Media, or LPM, a $76,000 funding jolt that would still reduce the station’s services. Most council members last week picked the less-expensive option, because the city’s overall budget was tight.
But council members reconsidered their initial vote after Marcia Martin said Tuesday night she wanted to give LPM’s growth plan a chance to succeed.
“It makes me think we need to encourage them to stay with their plan,” Martin said.
Money for the funding boost may come from a portion of the city’s marijuana tax, which is projected to be $410,000 in 2021, city officials said Tuesday night.
The funding infusion would allow LPM to convert key contractors - currently paid below market - to employees and pay them market rates and allow the facility to build the makerspace aspects for 2022, according to a city staff report to the city council.
LPM’s makerspace model includes classes for the public and community programming. The current contract, which expires at the end of the year, calls for recording and broadcasting of all boards and commissions, the city council and planning and zoning meetings. LPM also offers a voice-to-text service that adds automatic transcription of meetings, the staff report said.
The COVID-19 spread put a damper on the LPM’s ability to fully offer services in 2020, the city staff report said.
“Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic created an impossible situation for the makerspace to thrive and while we hope the chilling effects of the public health emergency are over by 2021, at this point it is difficult to predict,” the staff report said.
LPM ended all of its volunteer outreach over the past six months and decreased revenues from franchise fees, prompting the station to ask for the one-time funding, the city report said.
