By alison granito
Staff Writer
MILLSTONE — Officials say they will try again.
At last week’s Township Committee meeting, the governing body rejected the lone bid on a project to provide the township with cameras and equipment to start a local cable access channel.
The bid, which came in at $49,000, was excluded on the recommendation of Township Attorney Duane Davison. Officials said the document did not contain all the information firms bidding on public contracts are required to submit.
In a previous interview, office manger Jim Pickering said that a new round of bidding was scheduled to open yesterday.
Officials said they hoped that more than one firm would be interested in the project the second time around.
Officials have said that if the township purchases cameras and a recording system, meetings could be televised in the near future, as soon as six to eight weeks after the equipment arrives.
The township has had a $20,000 grant from Cablevision in its coffers for more than a year to fund the project. As part of its agreement with Cablevision, the township also receives proceeds from a charge on residents’ cable bills for the channel.
According to estimates given at the July 3 committee meeting, the township received $17,000 for the last year of the agreement and $18,000 for this year, bringing the total funds received from Cablevision to $55,000.
At that meeting, Committeeman John Pfefferkorn said that most townships that broadcast their government meetings operate with a volunteer work force that films the meetings and takes care of the details of the production process.
All five elected officials have supported broadcasting township meetings.