Northampton Open Media Executive Director Al Williams spoke about NOM’s efforts during the Sept. 17 City Council meeting.
Photo credit: Northampton Open Media
NORTHAMPTON — After a decade working out of the high school, Northampton Community Television is on the cusp of securing a new 10-year lease with the city to operate out of James House Community Center on 42 Gothic St.
According to an order presented by Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra at the Sept. 17 City Council meeting, the council must authorize the lease agreement, which states that NCTV would operate its production offices and studios out of “Lease Area 3” inside the building.
The James House also houses The Literacy Project, which provides basic education programs for adults, and the Center for New Americans.
“[The new lease] will help enable them to continue to provide the very excellent local public educational and governmental PEG [public, educational and governmental] access programming that we rely on here in Northampton,” Sciarra said of the lease agreement with NCTV. “We’re really excited about this plan.”
Aside from offering multimedia education, training and equipment, NCTV — also known as Northampton Open Media — offers three public television channels and posts recorded government meetings on its accompanying YouTube channel.
NOM Executive Director Al Williams said he was “super proud” of the “amazing work” NOM accomplished at the high school over the last decade. As someone who’s visited various community media centers across the country, he shared that NOM’s school program is “one of the best in the country.”
“We’re only really comfortable with this [new lease] because we know we’re not abandoning that program in any way our support of it … in fact, we’re gonna increase it,” Williams said. “We’re visualizing ways where we can continue to build out the program in the school.”
Williams highlighted the importance of maintaining a space with the city, especially as funding for community access television becomes sparse. He said that NOM, which has a public-facing space on 33 Hawley St., is facing a lot of “shifting sands” in its future.
Speaking in front of the council, Williams commended the James House for its accessibility and an additional five to seven parking spaces for public use.
“Having a downtown location with parking on bus lines where people can easily get to, it’s a better fit for us,” Williams said.
Aside from a couple of questions, very few councilors spoke on the topic. City Councilor Meg Robbins wondered whether the new arrangement would still meet the organization’s climate control needs, to which Williams said a lot of that equipment will stay at the high school.
“All of our climate needs will be taken care of,” Williams said.
While discussing this new lease, Ward 6 City Councilor Chris Stratton lauded NOM for its record-keeping of Northampton meetings across the years on its YouTube page. That said, federal laws have made it difficult for community access television to exist, which is why Williams said NOM is looking at state bills that would tax streaming services to generate new sources of revenue.
“There’s a federal law that mandates that it’s only television revenues that apply to the equation that the city negotiates with the cable provider over public right of way that generates revenue that supports our existence,” Williams said. “And so, we’re operating on a number of different fronts to try to keep ourselves sustainable.”
Williams said NOM will host a fundraiser board game festival from Nov. 6-8 on 33 Hawley St. to help them raise money.
The council took no action on the lease agreement with the city. The body plans to vote on it officially during its Oct. 1 meeting.
