The idea of broadcasting county board meetings has popped up again, but it may have to wait until the meetings move to the revamped courthouse.

Now that the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners is meeting in the Albert Lea City Council Chambers, Commissioner Dan Belshan has suggested that the county take advantage of the wiring already in place that is used to broadcast council meetings on the radio.

&uot;I think we might as well experiment with it since we have the equipment in the council chambers,&uot; Belshan said.

Belshan, who has brought up the idea of airing meetings on radio or television before, mentioned it during Tuesday’s board meeting. It got a mixed reaction.

Other board members said they saw no problem with the idea but wondered if a local radio station would be willing to take the time out of their broadcast schedule to air the meetings. Some commissioners said they thought existing media coverage does a good enough job of keeping people aware of happenings.

Belshan said his eventual goal is to get the meetings aired on public-access cable, which was not possible in the old board room because the wiring wasn’t in place. When the board moves into its new meeting room after the courthouse project is complete, the wiring will be there.

&uot;You could even put committee meetings on there, on public access,&uot; Belshan said. &uot;With radio, you’re never going to get that.&uot;

The meetings could be aired on a rotating schedule, some during the day and some at night, so everyone could get a chance to watch if they wanted, he said.

The county board did not include audio-visual equipment necessary to broadcast the meetings in the courthouse project’s budget, but could conceivably purchase it in the future.

A representative of KATE/KCPI Radio at Tuesday’s meeting told the board that management had discussed the idea of broadcasting meetings but was hesitant to air them because it would interrupt their normal programming schedule. The idea of airing taped segments of the meeting also came up, but the radio station has not endorsed that idea, either.

Greg Jensen, owner of the other local radio station, KQPR, said his station’s musical format wouldn’t mix well with county board meetings.