OIL CITY, Pa. (EYT) — The Oil City Council agreed to hire Lightning Strike Productions/STREAM Media of Titusville to run its Public, Education and Government Access (PEG) television channel at Thursday’s meeting.
Both STREAM Media and WREC TV, who is currently involved with the PEG channel, expressed interest in running the channel. STREAM got the recommendation of council member Isaiah Dunham, who was a de facto one-man committee looking into the matter.
Council member Ronald Gustafson believed STREAM would be able to step right in and provide the needed content for the station because it is already doing similar things in Titusville.
Some members of council, including Dunham, expressed the importance of having a board over top of STREAM that would ensure that the majority of the programming be Oil City related as opposed to Titusville related. Council agreed that was an important aspect.
Dunham also expressed that there were some edits he would like to see made to the contract, the main one that if council meetings were not being broadcast for an “x” amount of time council could terminate the contract and look for another entity to run the channel.
Watch the majority of the PEG discussion had by council.
COUNCIL TO RE-ADVERTISE 2017 MILLAGE RATE BECAUSE OF CLERICAL ERROR
City Manager Mark Schroyer informed council that the 2017 Millage Rate passed by council in December was going to need to be re-advertised because of a clerical mistake in the line items.
According to Schroyer and borough solicitor Robert Varsek, while the millage rate of 11.92 mills is correct, when the line items are added up it comes to 11.91 mills. Therefore, a change needs to be made in the line items to equal it out to 11.92 mills.
Council agreed to re-advertise.
UPDATE ON MULTI-MODAL TRANSPORTATION COMPLEX
Oil City Mayor William Moon said he attended a meeting Thursday about the new Multi-Modal Transportation complex in the area that held the parking ramp that is currently being torn down and said some changes have been made to the project.
“They will be having a public meeting sometime in February or March to show some of those changes,” Moon said.
According to Moon, the changes aren’t major ones.
Moon also said that in part because of a letter from the Oil City Shade Tree Commission, trees will be placed at the project as well as rain gardens.
“There will also be electronic kiosks for parking so people can pay with their credit card as well as cash,” Moon said.
Moon noted that this is a $6 to $8 million project and it should be completed by next fall.
MEMBER OF ARTS COUNCIL ASKS IF BANNER COULD BE PLACED ACROSS SENECA STREET FOR BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL
Kay Woods, a member of the Board of Directors for the Oil City Arts Council, asked council if a banner could be placed across Seneca Street advertising the upcoming Oil Country Bluegrass Festival being held Feb. 24-26 at the Oil City Days Inn.
Woods explained that she would like to see more people enjoy downtown when they come to the Bluegrass Festival.
“All it will say is the ‘Oil Country Bluegrass Welcomes You,’” Woods said. “I have talked to business owners who have told us they would allow us to secure the banner to their buildings.”
Council informed Woods that she would probably need to get PennDot’s approval for the sign because it goes across a state-owned road.
They gave her permission to hang the sign pending that approval.
DEAL ADDRESSES COUNCIL ABOUT USING BIKE TRAIL FOR ATV, UTV RUN
Larry Deal addressed council about a letter he sent that concerning the possible use of the bike trail for an ATV, UTV run once or twice a year.
“This would be a controlled run with two or three stops along the trail where there would be knowledgeable people talking about the history of the region,” Deal said.
Deal likened it to the snowmobile run in Marienville.
According to Deal, there would be strict rules and regulations for the proposed event to limit liability and to keep the speed down.
“I know they hold events like this in West Virginia that make millions of dollars from people from Western Pennsylvania,” Deal said.
Moon agreed that it was a good idea but said that the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) has regulations that say no motorized vehicles are allowed on the trail and allowing it could cost grant money for the trails.
“I would love to see it and asked last year about it because it could bring a lot of money to the area,” Moon said. “But when you get into these sort of things entities have a stranglehold on rules and regulations.”
Gustafson said he believed there should be some level of cooperation with something like this because it would bring business into the area.
Moon told Deal he should approach State Representative R. Lee James and State Senator Scott Hutchinson about it.
“Maybe they can help you get the red tape out of the way,” Moon said.
Deal said he would do that and continue looking into the event.
APPOINTMENTS
Council also made the following appointments at the meeting:
The next council meeting is set for 4:30 p.m. at the council chambers at the Oil City building.
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