Talk of the Town - Whitley County

(Talk of the Town photo by Jennifer Zartman Romano) Otto Boschet Jr. has become a frequent attendee at local meetings as he's begun a project to record and publish videos of local governmental meetings. Below, Boschet adjusts his camera to record a January 2011 Whitley County Commissioners' meeting.

By Jennifer Zartman Romano

With many Whitley County residents experiencing an renewed or growing interest in the affairs of local government, there seems to be no time better than the present to make observing the workings of government more simple.
Whitley County resident and 1997 CCHS graduate Otto Boschet Jr. has spent the better part of the past several years excelling in the area of video production and working with cable access television in Fort Wayne. Now, he's bringing this interest home to Whitley County as well with an internet site featuring recordings of recent governmental meetings including Whitley County Commissioners, Whitley County Council, Whitley County Plan Commission and Columbia City Common Council.
A long-time supporter of plans to create cable access television in Whitley County, Boschet has come up with a unique idea that works just about the same, but relies on volunteer support and utilizes his own equipment. Indeed, there's no financial or governmental support for what he's doing -- but there is definite community interest in the website Boschet created.
Boschet launched the site, www.whitleytv.info, on New Year's Day and has several videos from recent public meetings loaded already.
"I figured it was a stepping stone to getting the local community involved in public access," Boschet said. "The biggest advantage of public access is being able to get information out to the community with the smallest amount of effort on the community's part to get that information."
Attending so many meetings and recording them will be a challenge, but it is a process that will be made easier by several residents, including fellow Whitley County resident and videographer Nick Henney. Like Boschet, Henney has wanted to see public access television or a public access internet site come to fruition in Whitley County for many years.
Boschet has been involved in communication for many years, with 11 years spent in public access specifically. "I caught the bug with high school radio broadcasting and then I got involved with IPFW's college access channel where I learned the basics of broadcasting," said Boschet. "An opportunity opened up in 2002 to work with the Allen County Public Library in public access." Now, he creates television programming for Comcast channels 57 and 55 as well as Government Access channel 58.
"As a member of the non-profit Alliance for Community Media, it is important to educate and provide ways for free speech through electronic media," added Boschet. He said public access locally might not only include governmental meetings, but school events, sporting events and anything the public deems interesting.
Boschet began recording local governmental meetings in November 2010 and said he's found local leaders to be very supportive of what he's trying to do.
In addition to shining a light on the proceedings of local government, recorded meetings also enable the public to view the proceedings at their convenience online, 24 hours a day.
Boschet is still hoping someday his recordings of local government meetings could be viewed online through cable television, but he knows that may be far off in the future.
"Whitley County has not reserved a cable channel," Boschet said. Franchise fees from local cable television providers are paid to the city and to the county. Those funds, however, are being absorbed in the general fund. Currently, Boschet is working with the Whitley County Auditor's office to see if potentially more fees are due to be paid to the county. "Then, I'd like to see if the county would contribute that extra 2% toward cable access," he said. "They would not have to give up the 3% they're already getting, but they could contribute the additional 2% they may be due."
Boschet said that Fort Wayne audits their cable access franchise fees every five years and recently discovered an additional $80,000 in franchise fees they should have been receiving.
"I'm now doing exactly what I wanted to do," Boschet said of his work, but added that he'd like to be able to bring public access television to Whitley County eventually. In the meantime, he's happy to record local governmental meetings and begin offering them to the public via his website.
Talk of the Town is pleased to participate in Boschet's project and we will be providing video for publication on the site from time to time. We will also be directing you to public meeting videos posted on the site as a means of informing residents in a way that does not interject opinion -- but that allows room for awareness,
observance and public involvement.
If you'd be interested in volunteering to record public meetings, send an email to jennifer@talkofthetownwc.com  A meeting of all potential volunteers for the project will be arranged in the near future. To participate in the recording of public meetings, you will need to have your own digital video camera and be able to upload the files to the internet. A Flip camera would be ideal for this.