Ask Mr. Answer Person: "Whatever happened to the idea of streaming supervisors' meetings?"

(Darrel e-mails Mr. Answer Person: "What ever happened to the great idea of "Streaming" the county supervisiors' meetings so we all can here and see what is going on first hand.  The average working folks have a hard time allotting time to attend meetings Monday mornings unless it is directly affecting them. I do feel that for the most part the voter is interested in hearing what is said and who said it at the meetings.  I do know that the ability to make that happen is all ready present "in house" and would not be a big deal money wise.")

Mr. Answer Person says: "You're correct that the ability to streaming supervisor meetings on the Internet already exists and wouldn't cost much.  The hang-ups are more operational issues than technical issues.

For instance, supervisor meetings are held every Monday and often run for three hours or maybe four or five hours during budget sessions.  That means a possible 12 to 20 hours of video to record.  By contrast, the Decorah City Council meets twice a month for an hour or two, so we're talking about three hours of video to record.

And in the case of Decorah City council meetings, staff members from the Decorah Public Library handle the recording and transferring of video.  Unless the county could find volunteers, they would have to pay someone for recording the meetings.

What might be more possible is the recording of portions of county board meetings that will have high levels of public interest, such as those for zoning issues, including frac sand mining issues.  Otherwise, you would be getting lengthy video that not a lot of people would be watching.

But while we're discussing what the City of Decorah and Winneshiek County do or don't do for their meetings, you have overlooked another important local government: the Decorah Community School District.  Regular school board meetings are held only once a month and run two or three hours.  In addition, there's plenty of video expertise among school district staffers.

So let's not just concentrate on video coverage of the Winneshiek County Board.  Decorah School Board meetings would be shorter and would have higher levels of public interest.