Newspaper Clipping - Newspaper Clipping Scan - Cities can't settle on studio - 3/29/2008BECT/from 1A
cable subscribers pay to sup-
port community television
hasn't matched costs, forcing
annual subsidies from each
city of $103,500. Officials
warn of legislative threats to
franchising powers that could
further endanger revenue for
BECT, whose annual budget
is around $900,000.
Relocation options are
staying put, moving to other
rented space or moving to
an expanded studio space at
Burnsville High School's main
campus — with no charge for
rent, utilities or maintenance.
BECT would pay annual
capital costs of $35,000 un-
der a three-year contract with
Burnsville -Eagan -Savage
School District 191, which
would get would get half
ownership of studio produc-
tion equipment valued at
$225,000. A second expan-
sion could follow, at a cost of
up to $150,000 for BECT.
School officials are eager
to bring modern equipment
to the high school studio, of-
fer a TV -production class and
carry live feeds of games and
performances.
Eagan officials have com-
plained that Burnsville and
the school district are focus-
ing too much on the high
school option to the possible
exclusion of others.
The move would put
BECT "in our back yard, and
not theirs, and it's a distance
issue," Burnsville Council
Member Dan Kealey said at
a council work session March
25.
"It's a little too close to our
home for them to warm up to,
and they're having to warm up
to it," said Kealey, who serves
on a two -city committee that's
been studying the issue.
Eagan City. Administrator
Tom Hedges said in an in-
terview that Eagan residents
who work on community
television productions will
be asked their views on the
Burnsville site.
"We certainly have had
a longstanding culture of a
location that's right on the
boundary of the two cities,"
Hedges said. "And our vol-
unteers have become accus-
tomed to that particular loca-
tion."
Cities can't settle on stuu-to
Community television may
get new home, but where?
by John Gessner
THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS
Burnsville City Council
members affirmed their sup-
port March 25 for moving
Burnsville -Eagan Community
Television to Burnsville High
School.
Eagan officials aren't sold
on the move, which would
remove the community televi-
sion studio from its longtime
home in their city.
Both cities, which share a
cable franchise and jointly op-
erate BECT, agree that a deci-
sion is needed by May.
The five-year lease at
Decentralization of BECT
employees — with some at the
high school and some likely
working out of Burnsville
City Hall — as well as other
"soft costs" must be studied
before Eagan makes a recom-
mendation, Hedges said.
Eagan is still studying
lease options at the current
building, as well as commer-
cial space near Highway 13
in southwest Eagan, Hedges
said.
"There's another loca-
tion, where there's actually
a very favorable per -square -
foot cost, where it could be
moved," Hedges said.
The cities looked into
BECT's rented quarters off
Diffley Road near the Burns-
ville -Eagan border will ex-
pire Dec. 31. If a move is in
BECT's future, planning must
begin soon, officials say.
Both cities asked in 2006
that new locations be studied.
Lease and operating costs at
the current building exceed
$180,000 a year. And BECT
is bleeding money, with an-
nual shortfalls of more than
$200,000 projected to worsen
in coming years.
Revenue from the "public -
education -government" fee
See BECT, 5A
moving BECT to Eagan High
School. But Rosemount -
Apple Valley -Eagan School
District 196 already has mod-
ern studios in its schools and
wasn't interested, Burnsville
officials say.
"This is a community tele-
vision operation," said Jim
Skelly, Burnsville's commu-
nications coordinator. "You
kind of have to look past the
borders to make decisions
about this."
Eagan's City Council will
discuss the matter at a work
session in April.
John Gessner is at Burnsville.
thisweek@ecm-inc. com.