City looking to add livestreams of meetings

Live video feeds for Creston City Council meetings may be coming soon. The city has been looking into various options for streaming and recording over the last few months.

Tuesday, the council learned about one of the options from Cade Curtis, president of Des Moines’ Mainstay Systems. After previous discussions with city employees, Curtis brought forward a cost estimate of $15,491. This proposal includes two TVs, two cameras, a Dell desktop computer, networking and other miscellaneous items. Not included is the cost of the Zoom subscription service suggested. Curtis said setting up the various components would take about five weeks.

Council members noted many of the items suggested were higher-end products, something they questioned would be needed when the council only meets twice a month.

“Do we need high end? My concern is, if it’s overbuilt and we don’t use the capabilities because we only use it twice a month, then we’ve wasted money,” council member Kiki Scarberry said.

Council members also said the price points were even harder to deal with knowing the lifespan of the various components: 10 years for the cameras and about six for the computer.

Requests were made for Curtis to come back with lower price options, the goal to keep the project under the $14,000 originally budgeted.

“I don’t know that we need two auto tracking cameras, maybe just one. I’d like you to see a new quote on the computer,” council member Joclyn Blazek said. “Like you said, you need to get some adjustments that need to be made.”

Later in the meeting, Scarberry asked if she could try her own setup at the next meeting.

“Would anybody be opposed if I volunteered to set up an Owl and we could see how that looks for the next meeting?” Scarberry asked. “The nice thing about it is, with an Owl we could take and use it for other meetings.”

A Meeting Owl is a 360-degree video conferencing camera that includes a microphone and speaker. The camera focuses on active speakers and provides a large view of the room. New Meeting Owls can cost anywhere from $1,099 to $2,599.

Scarberry said the city could stream to YouTube, a platform that automatically saves and date locks the recording for future viewing.

“We should be able to set up a system in here between $2,500 and $5,000 at the high end,” Scarberry said. “I know we’re at $15,000 and I just would like to show you something that is more economical for a starting point.”

The council agreed to try out the Meeting Owl setup at the next meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 5.

In other council news...

The council approved a resolution adopting the proposed budget for FY27. An in-depth budget and certified city tax plan can be found in the city’s April 21 meeting agenda packet on their website.

Galen Zumbach was reappointed to the civil service commission by the council. There are still six board positions open, as well as the Ward 3 council seat. Open positions include: two board of adjustments terms, two historical preservation commission terms, a planning and zoning term and another civil service commission term.