PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has approved $7,500 in start-up funding for Peninsula Area Public Access, the region’s new public affairs TV channel and website.
County commissioners voted 3-0 Tuesday to fund the Port Angeles-based nonprofit through the end of this year.
Peninsula Area Public Access, or PAPA, will use the money to buy additional cameras and editing equipment, PAPA board member and Port Angeles Public Works and Utilities Director Craig Fulton said.
“The intent is to begin covering county events of interest,” Fulton said Wednesday.
Local public access programming began last month on Wave Broadband’s public access, education and government Channel 21.
Non-Wave subscribers will eventually be able to access the programming on the PAPA website, www.papaonline.tv.
Information resource
County officials said the platform could be used to promote tourism and to disseminate information about county services such as emergency management, public works, septic inspections and noxious weed control.
“My take is they’re going to make a request for a lot more [funding] to come out of Clallam County to help them on an annual basis,” County Administrator Jim Jones told commissioners Monday.
Clallam County elected officials and department heads are being asked to assess the value they would glean from public access programming as part of the 2017 budget process.
“We are trying to get a handle on how the county can best utilize this new resource,” Commissioner Mark Ozias told county officials at Tuesday’s board meeting.
“There are many communities who use public access for a variety of reasons, so the better you can help us understand what your department’s needs might be with regard to public access, the better job we’ll be able to do of prioritizing that funding.”
Throughout Clallam
Peninsula Area Public Access will cover events that occur throughout the county, not just in Port Angeles, Fulton said.
PAPA is already producing content with area tribes.
Fulton said the channel will be “what county residents want it to be.”
PAPA will receive $60,000 from Wave Broadband public access fees in 2016 and 2017 and is already in negotiations for a future franchise agreement, Fulton said.
The group will also generate revenue from donations, business and personal sponsorships, and business and personal memberships.
Individuals can buy a $50 annual membership and use PAPA equipment and get training to put their content on Channel 21.
Thus far, the effort has been made possible through a “huge, huge volunteer effort,” Fulton said.
“I hope to work with the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee later on this year once we better determine how much of PAPA’s programming is going to be related to tourism promotion,” Ozias said.
“I’m hoping that I can work with them to put a proposal together from the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee for additional funding to help support the tourism and visitor-related work that PAPA intends to do.”
Commissioner Bill Peach said the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau might have an interest in promoting tourism and small businesses on the public access channel.
“I can just imagine somebody with a bed and breakfast, a resort or whatever, these guys come out and video it, it’s there,” Peach said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
