The City of Castlegar will be getting a new audio and web-casting system within the next few months.
Council passed a motion this month to award the service contract to DHC Communications.
The city will pay more than $45,000 for a system that will allow council meetings to be posted to the Internet.
In the request for proposals that went out in January, the basic requirements for the system included a method for eliminating audio feedback, an audio feed for Shaw Cable, inclusion of laptop presentations, the ability to record to local media, the capacity to include at least one remote councillor, fast video load times and automated camera tracking.
DHC is a local company. Their proposal included no ongoing costs for the first year, and $95 an hour for any repair work after that.
Once installed, council meetings will stream through Youtube.
Because the new spending is equal to an approximate 0.5 per cent increase in taxes, councillors Sue Heaton-Sherstobitoff and Florio Vassilakakis suggested tabling the motion until after upcoming public budget hearings. They wanted to see if the pubic was in favour of increasing spending in order to provide the service.
City staff is now preparing a draft budget and public budget meetings will take place in a few weeks.
