http://www.michigancityin.com/articles/200.../23/news/n3.txt

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County gives ALCo $30K

By Laurie Wink, The News-Dispatch

LaPORTE - ALCo-TV 97, the county-wide government channel, will be able to operate with the latest, well-maintained technology thanks to a $30,000 appropriation approved Tuesday by the LaPorte County Commissioners.

Bart Lombard, director of operations for Access LaPorte County, made the request, and the commissioners added $7,500 to the quarterly management fee of $15,000 to be used for equipment purchases and maintenance.

Access LaPorte County (ALCo), a nonprofit organization, started providing coverage of county governmental meetings in August 2005, Lombard said.

At that time, Michigan City also agreed to broadcast its meetings through ALCo. Each entity negotiated its own contract with ALCo to pay $15,000 per quarter for the coverage.

The county and Michigan City negotiated agreements with Comcast to provide cable service in exchange for 5 percent quarterly franchise fees paid to the government entities. The agreements also contained a “pass through” clause that returned a portion of the franchise fee to be used for equipment purchase and maintenance.

However, last July, the General Assembly voted to give the state the authority to negotiate a government access contract for the entire state, through the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. At that point, Lombard said the original pass-through funds to be paid by Comcast were lost and, “ALCo was out in the dark.”

With the additional $30,000 from the county, Lombard said ALCo will be able to provide the best possible government meeting coverage to residents throughout LaPorte County. He said that in addition to live and taped broadcasts of Michigan City, LaPorte County and some city of LaPorte meetings, ALCo allows residents to watch the meetings on their computers through the Web site www.alco.org.

Lombard said that, unlike newspapers and other news-gathering organizations, ALCo is more like “the mouse in the corner.”

“We don't make commentary, we don't have an opinion, we just offer gavel-to-gavel coverage,” he said.

ALCo-TV 97 is the only outlet in the state offering coverage of the Indiana General Assembly. Lombard said that ALCo provides coverage of an average of 100 governmental meetings a month.