A screen grab from the council’s March 23 session via Zoom. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After two years of meeting on laptop screens, the Red Bank council is moving closer to a return to borough hall, while continuing to offer participation from home.
“Frankly, we are in the dinosaur age here,” Mayor Pasquale Menna said earlier this month, noting that other towns have returned to in-person meetings as pandemic-driven health concerns have eased.
At meetings on March 9 and March 23, Councilwoman Jacqueline Sturdivant, who chairs the education and technology committee, offered updates.
The aim is to preserve the virtual option, which has been provided by Zoom, “giving the residents who cannot go to borough hall the option to participate remotely,” Sturdivant said.
After meeting with the borough information technology consultants, Intron Technology, the plan calls for adding multiple cameras, microphones and speakers in the council chamber, she said. For the virtual component, Zoom will be used, with a dedicated employee to monitor the system.
The upgrades will cost about $7,440 and take four to six weeks to implement, Sturdivant said.
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