The Mandan Ed Bosh-Froelich meeting room is being equipped this week to start televising Mandan City Commission meetings by early 2009 through Dakota Media Access, the former Community Access Television.

All government proceedings that are recorded in Bismarck and Mandan will shift to the Government Access Cable Channel 2, beginning on Jan. 1, 2009.

The company will continue to have its regular community programming on Channel 12.

"We should be up and ready to go in the first meeting in January," City Administrator Jim Neubauer said. "The room is under construction now. We are looking at installing three or four video cameras."

Mayor Tim Helbling said he will ask other entities if they are interested in recording at the city meeting room.

They are the Morton County Commission, Mandan School Board and Mandan Park Board. The recording is free of charge.

"It's a good gesture," he said.

The equipment is being paid from a cable franchise fee that goes into the city's general fund.

"I think it's a very good thing," Helbling said of televising the meetings. "I think it will bring a lot more professionalism to the commission meetings. The people will be more educated and prepared about the topics when they approach the board.

"A lot more people can take interest in the meetings because they can watch them on television."

Neubauer said the service is being funded through a franchise fee that Mandan residents pay in their monthly cable bills.

"We built an extra room to house the equipment and direct the feed. There will be three or four cameras," Neubauer said. "New microphones are being installed for the direct feed."

He believes the electrical hookups will be able to run through the ceiling.

"We are putting in four flat-screen monitors and equipment to show maps and drawings."

The equipment and building the room to house them cost about $45,000. The city's annual expense to broadcast its meetings on Government Access Cable will be $55,000 per year.

"It's another tool to help citizens be informed on how their local government operates," Neubauer said. "It's the next step."

Mary Van Sickle, executive director of Dakota Media Access, said the name change of the company came because they are expanding services. "We have more Web-based services, an additional cable channel and we are adding Mandan."

She said the Government Access Cable Channel 2 will feature government meetings and other government programming. Through the year's end, both channels 12 and 2 will air government meetings. On Jan. 1, all meetings will switch to channel 2.

Mandan's meetings are not expected to air until the first of the year to allow the equipment to be tested thoroughly.

(Reach LeAnn Eckroth at 250-8264 or leaan.eckroth@bismarcktribune.com.)