Glen Osborne residents and others will soon be able to watch borough council meetings from the comfort of their own homes.
Workshops and voting sessions are expected to be livestreamed and videos posted on the borough’s new YouTube channel starting in June.
Council unanimously voted May 19 to approve the additions and authorized spending $2,500 from the emergency management fund to buy the necessary equipment.
“We hope to engage the residents of our borough in local government,” council President John Orndorff said May 21. “We want them to know what’s going on, what the issues are and to become more interested and participatory.
“People are just blissfully unaware of what’s going on unless there is an issue that directly affects them, like a tree falling in their yard or a major pothole on Beaver Road.”
Equipment includes a laptop, a tripod, cables, and an Owl Labs camera and microphone system, which can focus on speakers and show more than a static view of the council.
Orndorff said it was important to get a system that was easy to set up and take down because Glen Osborne doesn’t have its own borough building. Council holds meetings at Osborne Elementary.
“We hope that residents will tune in,” Orndorff said.
The borough has been exploring the possibility of livestreaming and posting meeting videos for months at the behest of Mayor Matthew Doebler. Doebler was an Aleppo Township commissioner from 2014 to 2019 before moving back to his hometown.
During his time in Aleppo, he created its “meeting digest” system, which provides a recap of commissioners’ meetings, including links to YouTube videos of the meetings.
That system continues to be used in Aleppo. Digests are sent to residents via email and include a meeting breakdown with links to certain portions of the meeting so viewers can go straight to subjects that interest them.
Doebler said he will be implementing that system in Glen Osborne with the help of Claude AI.
“I am so excited,” the mayor said on May 27. “I think that livestreaming and digesting meetings (are the) most important things that a local government can do to increase participation and awareness of its residents. I cannot wait to see what happens to Glen Osborne when we start streaming meetings.”
Doebler said initial streams will look similar to Zoom meetings.
“It’s not going to be like a Steven Spielberg production,” he said. “What it does is it scans the room and it picks up whoever’s speaking and focuses on them. You get a head and shoulders shot of a person who’s speaking.”
The system will also help track council attendance and votes.
However, meeting minutes will remain the official borough record.
The mayor hoped to have everything up and running by the June 2 workshop and pledged to have it all ready by the June 16 voting meeting.
Doebler said he has been going door to door with letters informing residents of the upcoming meeting videos.
Residents should also expect to receive a letter from the borough in the mail.
Streaming links and digest registration forms will be posted on the borough website, glenosborneborough.org.
“I think it’s not just residents who are going to be interested in this,” Doebler said. “I think it’s going to be the press. I think it’s going to be people from other municipalities. Obviously, (Glen) Osborne residents are primarily the beneficiaries here, but I think it serves the broader Sewickley community as well.
“A rising tide lifts all boats. My hope is if we make a great impact in (Glen) Osborne, just like we did in Aleppo, and Sewickley’s already starting to do something similar, then other communities will feel equally compelled to do it.”
Sewickley council livestreams its meetings and posts videos to the borough website.