Grants may provide library studios

By NATHAN LAMB | Milton Independent Staff Writer
mireporter@mac.com

It's official: Lake Champlain Access Television (LCATV) executive director Kevin Christopher presents Milton librarian Fran Ferro with a check from a new grant program that will underwrite cameras and production equipment for the library. Also pictured are Library Trustee Jeanette Cavanaugh and LCATV board member Dick Pecor.

Aspiring TV producers in Milton will soon have a local studio for practicing their craft, thanks to a grant from the regional public access station

It's called the Digital Media Grant Program and it's expected to purchase approximately $8,000 of new film and editing equipment at the Milton Public Library in the coming year.

The new program is a partnership between the library and Lake Champlain Access Television (LCATV) and it's designed to get more people involved with both, explained Library Trustee Chairman Pam Posey.

“We see it as a learning opportunity,” she said. “We would like to have a learning center in the library that would be for the town...I think they would like to see more local programming and more utilization of what's not always a well-known resource.”

Colchester-based LCATV board member Dick Pecor, who is generally credited with spearheading the establishment of the grant program, gave a similar account of its goals. LCATV is looking to reach a wider spectrum of the community by providing workspaces outside the station's Colchester studio, he said. LCATV currently has enough camera operators to film public meetings in its service communities of Colchester, Georgia, and Milton, but they want more diverse programming and they're hoping a convenient, local location will get more people submitting material.

“We are really trying to get some content that's community oriented, but we're also trying to provide a new avenue for people to get information out to each other- that's the really compelling aspect here,” he said.

Milton's three-year, $36,590 grant will purchase a digital camera, laptop with editing software, tripod, and other equipment, which will be stored in the library. It will also underwrite a part-time film coordinator to handle technical aspects of the equipment, film training for the community at large, and outreach to get people interested, explained Posey.

Further details of the program will be fleshed-out by a steering committee shortly, she said. However, the starting point is hoping that people will step forward with programming ideas that feature what's interesting in Milton, she said.

“The point here is that a person could walk into the library, sign up to take a class that will familiarize them with the equipment, and once they're done that they can borrow camera equipment and begin to create footage,” she said. “It's open to anyone's imagination.”

Similar grant packages are being put together with Colchester and Georgia, said Pecor. Overall, he described the program as an experiment, saying the parameters were left flexible with the hope of getting new perspectives and ideas involved.

“It's a way of showcasing what access television does, but it's also an invitation to the people in the towns that it's not the exclusive domain of us here at the station,” he said.

The first grant check was presented to Librarian Fran Ferro on Jan. 14 by LCATV executive director Kevin Christopher. He noted that Milton was the first library to take advantage of the program and thanked them for collaborating to develop the program.

“Thanks for being the first,” he said. “Thanks for all the hard work.”