The Katharine Matthies Foundation recently informed Seymour that it will give the town $19,300 to purchase a DVR recording system for the Norma Drummer meeting room at Town Hall, according to First Selectman Kurt Miller.
After the equipment is installed, Seymour will be the first municipality in the lower Naugatuck Valley to make videos of public meetings available to residents on demand over the Internet.
The money to install the equipment is one of several expenses being covered by the Katharine Matthies Foundation.
The foundation — formed in 1987, and named in honor of lifetime Seymour resident and benefactor Katharine Matthies — awards grants every year to meet social and community needs.
(The foundation has awarded grants to the Valley Indy in the past.)
Click here to read more about Matthies’ legacy on the Electronic Valley website.
The foundation also awarded Seymour:
- $11,000 for garbage and recycling cans in parks,
- $2,440 to restore a bell at Seymour Town Hall,
- $2,216 for a big-screen TV for the Callahan House, a Seymour Housing Authority property for seniors,
- $1,500 for a computer and shelving units at the Main Street-based Connecticut Partnership For Children.
Two grants from the foundation didn’t come through — for a Smartboard for the Drummer Room, and a generator for Town Hall, totaling just over $25,000 — but Miller said he’s optimistic about those requests being fulfilled next year.
Grants awarded by the foundation to other Seymour organizations included:
- $60,000 to fund renovations at the Seymour Historical Society,
- $2,000 for the high school’s “Take A Stand Day” motivational speaker,
- $4,500 for training and equipment at Seymour Pop Warner.
Let There Be Meeting Video
All in all the town will receive more than $36,000 from the foundation, but it was the new recording system that had First Selectman Kurt Miller most excited Wednesday.
“We’re going to really enhance the ability for folks who can’t make a meeting to see what’s going on,” Miller said.
The first selectman said the recording shouldn’t mean much additional work.
“The secretary will essentially push a button and the meeting will be recorded,” Miller said.
He said the the town plans to post meeting videos on its website the day after they happen.
That’s important to keep people informed, he said.
“With the way that folks need to work in this day and age to make ends meet … sometimes it’s tough to make a meeting,” Miller said. “It’s going to make our residents better educated with town business and I think that will alleviate some of the issues and concerns that some people have.”
If nothing else, the news means Frank Loda can retire with a clean conscience.
For the past few years Loda has been video-recording public meetings in Seymour and posting them — at his own expense — on his website.
Loda said Wednesday he’s OK with being made redundant, but that he’ll stick around for the time being, at least until town officials “get the hang of things.”
“It’s a good thing for the community,” he said. “I think the people deserve to have something like this available.”
“It’s a major job,” he said of producing and recording the meeting videos. “I’ve been doing it for four or five years and I still don’t have the hang of all of it.”
Producing the videos and hosting them on the web costs him about $30 per month, Loda said.
He said he and his wife have been exploring retirement options recently, but selling their house hasn’t been easy with the market the way it is.
“I’ll be 80 years old in another few months,” he said. “I’m getting to the point where it’s time to slow down, I think.”
