{"id":1319222,"date":"2020-04-01T18:05:55","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T00:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=995057"},"modified":"2020-04-01T18:05:55","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T00:05:55","slug":"under-covid-19-lockdown-local-governments-turn-to-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/under-covid-19-lockdown-local-governments-turn-to-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Under COVID-19 lockdown, local governments turn to tech"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/Screen-Shot-2020-03-27-at-3.24.00-PM-1024x439.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/Screen-Shot-2020-03-27-at-3.24.00-PM-1024x439.png 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/Screen-Shot-2020-03-27-at-3.24.00-PM-300x129.png 300w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/Screen-Shot-2020-03-27-at-3.24.00-PM-768x329.png 768w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/Screen-Shot-2020-03-27-at-3.24.00-PM.png 1423w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>Glenwood Springs city council met remotely Thursday, March 26, convening and broadcasting online during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/strong><br \/><em>Screen shot\/ YouTube \/ Zoom<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Along with every other organization that can, local governments are moving public meetings online \u2014 and encountering 21st-century challenges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are having a hard time staying connected because of all the demands on the cell and internet systems currently,\u201d Garfield County Spokeswoman Renelle Lott said.<\/p>\n<p>Garfield County commissioners are using a combination of systems, including streaming video platform Granicus, and conference lines for public comments, to maintain public engagement during the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>With the added pressure on the streaming service and a hardware issue that predated the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., the county\u2019s streaming system can be spotty.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row gspi-donation p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/pi-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/donate\/?utm_source=website&amp;utm_medium=news%20article&amp;utm_campaign=donation\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>There was also a technical hardware issue that came up that is unresolved, since the California factory that makes the replacement equipment has shut down due temporarily during the quarantine.<\/p>\n<p>The way bandwidth is allocated is also shifting more to homes, causing some hiccups in service during video conference calls.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cIf you think about internet providers and where the traffic was concentrated at larger entities prior to this, it\u2019s now from people\u2019s homes,\u201d Lott said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat changes the whole technical side of how streaming would be managed within the internet to some degree,\u201d Lott said.<\/p>\n<p>The county is far from the only local governing body that is working to adapt so they can continue necessary board and council meetings.<\/p>\n<p>Glenwood Springs\u2019 charter requires the council to meet at least twice a month, and while they canceled the March 19 meeting, they held a special meeting Thursday via Zoom, an online videoconferencing service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe public is still able to participate in that manner as well. It\u2019s an evolving aspect for us at the moment, but we\u2019re moving ahead with that plan,\u201d said Hannah Klausman, spokeswoman for the city of Glenwood Springs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I understand from Zoom is that it does have a pretty high capacity for meetings with up to 1,000 participants, and also the capacity for people to view it as well in a much higher number,\u201d Klausman said.<\/p>\n<p>Carbondale\u2019s board of trustees won\u2019t meet until April 14, but the town is looking at a similar combination of services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are finalizing the technology and will be testing it to ensure the public can participate,\u201d Carbondale Town Manager Jay Harrington said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this point we are looking at a blend of Zoom and YouTube, when we finalize it we will be letting the public know how they can participate in our meetings,\u201d Harrington said.<\/p>\n<p>Carbondale and Glenwood Springs also have an additional hurdle in public business.<\/p>\n<p>Ballots have already gone out for the April special election, which has not been postponed.<\/p>\n<p>With town hall closed to the public, Carbondale advises everyone to vote soon and mail or drop off the ballots early.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am encouraging everyone to vote early and if they haven\u2019t received a ballot by now to email or call me so a lot of people don\u2019t show up on (April) 7,\u201d Carbondale Town Clerk Cathy Derby said.&nbsp; \u201cWe will only allow one person into town hall at a time on election day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to social distancing from the public, ballot counters will also take precautions against spreading or contracting COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy four judges will be spaced well over 6 feet apart and they will wear gloves at all times,\u201d Derby said.<\/p>\n<p>Glenwood Springs will also provide gloves, and distance the ballot counters by 6 feet for the April 14 election. The city will also allow only one person to enter the municipal building at a time.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"mailto:tphippen@postindependent.com\">tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/under-covid-19-lockdown-local-governments-turn-to-tech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Glenwood Springs city council met remotely Thursday, March 26, convening and broadcasting online during the COVID-19 pandemic.Screen shot\/ YouTube \/ Zoom Along with every other organization that can, local governments are moving public meetings online \u2014 and encountering 21st-century challenges. \u201cPeople are having a hard time staying connected because of all the demands on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1319222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 23:39:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1319222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}