102 New Programs
61 programs produced by NMTV staff
1 program produced by city staff
40 programs produced by the public
64 hours of new programming
NEWS – EVENTS – MUNICIPAL VIDEOS
North Metro TV News is produced by Danika Peterson and Eric Nelson. Each month, the news team researches, shoots, and edits several news stories. TJ Tronson also contributes videos, when not managing city meetings. Trevor Scholl is North Metro TV’s Municipal Producer. Trevor works with city staff to create videos and stories at city request. These stories are distributed online via NMTV social media channels and compiled into the NMTV News program, which airs on channel 15. The stories relevant to each member city also air in between scheduled programs on the city channel.
68,678 Online Views from 26 New News, Events, and Municipal Videos
Most Viewed Online Story
Busy North Metro Intersection Getting MnDOT Grant
17,017 Views
The intersection at 85th Avenue and University Avenue in Blaine can be dangerous. With major retailers like Cub, Target, and Walmart nearby, the road can be a risky one for drivers and pedestrians. That is why State Representative Erin Koegel was so excited about a $2 million grant from MnDot. Representative Koegel spoke to Eric Nelson about the project, which will study the intersection to improve safety and capacity. Visit the intersection here.
Fighting Fires Together
The Centennial Fire District is now part of the SBM Fire Department. The two organizations have worked together for the last four years and now the partnership is official. Eric Nelson attended a special celebration at Fire Station Number 3 alongside local officials, like the mayors of Centerville and Circle Pines. Eric spoke to SBM Chief Dan Retka, who stressed that the collaboration was necessary to survive in the face of rising costs. Residents of Centerville and Circle Pines will now have 82 responding firefighters to depend on, instead of 20. See the story here.
Jefferson Park
Blaine’s Jefferson Park is about to receive a much-needed new playground. With the existing equipment approaching 20 years old, Blaine Parks and Recreation Director Jerome Kreiger said it was time for a change. Kreiger told Eric Nelson that much of the equipment needed for the $115,000 upgrade was already on hand and the playground will be ready for spring. Blaine has more parks than most other metro cities and is dedicated to making each one unique. This particular playground upgrade is the 37th in the last ten years. See the playground here.
Moving History
After 25 years in downtown Anoka, the Anoka County History Center is planning to move. Danika Peterson spoke to History Center Executive Director Rebecca Ebnet-Desens, who said the move is due to the city’s redevelopment plans. The History Center has just one year to inventory and move tens of thousands of historic items to an offsite storage facility. The research library will move to the first floor of the historic Ticknor Hill Mansion, with plans to operate the second floor as a bed and breakfast. See the story here.
Cold Car Care
When temperatures go down, business goes up. That’s what Trinity Auto Care owner Jessica Chochran told Eric Nelson and Trevor Scholl. Jessica gave the duo tips for getting a car through frigid temperatures, including making sure your battery, defrost, and wipers are all in good working order. Meanwhile, Minnesota State Climatologist Pete Boulay weighed in with one of the reasons this winter is so harsh on our vehicles: this year was the first time the state hit 20 degrees below zero in seven years. Watch the story here.
Senior Center Retirement
After 38 years, Ann Genosky is retiring from Blaine’s MAYC. Ann has been the beating heart of the senior center and its many services. TJ Tronson spoke to Ann and other MAYC staff ahead of her big retirement party. She spoke of the need to create a sense of belonging at the center. Ann remembered working with Mary Ann Young, for whom the center is named, and how she taught Ann that paperwork could wait, while Ann got to know the seniors who depend on MAYC. Say goodbye to Ann here.
Salty Winter
Minnesota winters can be punishing and layers of ice on our walkways can make them all the more treacherous. At the same time, though, road salt can be detrimental to the environment. Trevor Scholl spoke to Jessica Lindemyer of the Coon Creek Watershed District and got some tips about what she calls “smart salting.” Jessica said it was important to be mindful of when to use salt, pointing out that it only works at temperatures above 15 degrees. She recommended looking into alternatives like reusable crushed granite, brine, and beet juice. She also said that it is important to shovel first and shovel frequently You can see all of Jessica’s tips here.
Junior Council Member
For the last year, Sophie Wynn has served as Centerville’s Junior City Council Member, representing students and learning firsthand how city government works. With her term coming to a close, fellow Centennial High School student Garrett Schneider is stepping into the role. Both students sat down with TJ Tronson to discuss this special program. Sophie and Garrett both stressed that even though they do not have a vote, they still feel that their voice matters in council discussions. Meet Sophie and Garrett here.
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
NMTV presents high school sports games live on channel 15 and on YouTube. Kenton Kipp and Ted Leroux lead a team of talented videographers in capturing every exciting moment for Blaine, Centennial, and Spring Lake Park High Schools. Games are produced using our HD production truck and the vMix single camera system.
Most Viewed Online Sports Video
Game Recap
Boys Hockey
Blaine at Centennial
3,753 Views
8 New Games with 2,368 Online Views
8 Game Recap Videos Received an Additional 16,155 Online Views
CHANNEL 15
Most staff produced programs air on cable channel 15. This includes North Metro TV News and Sports Den, a weekly sports round up.
NMTV staff produced 5 new, full length programs, creating 2.5 hours of new content.
CLASSES AND PUBLIC ACCESS
North Metro TV offers its facilities and equipment to members of the public and helps them make and air their own programs! Eric Houston manages the department and offers support to our local producers. He teaches classes on a variety of topics, including video production, film history, and even how to use the internet. Eric also runs NMTV’s popular home movie transfer program, which helps community members put their old tapes, photos, and film reels on digital formats.
2 Live In Person Classes with 6 Attendees
Tech Support Day at MAYC – January 12
Studio Training – January 16
6,712 Attendees for Archived VOD Classes
Home Movie Transfers
217.25 Transfer Hours
14 Video Tapes
108 Film Reels
113 Photos and Slides
$1,079 in Fees Collected
Public Access Producers produced 40 new programs with 32 hours of content for Channel 14.
ONLINE VIEWING STATS
While North Metro TV does not have access to cable TV ratings, we can track how many people watch our shows and videos online on platforms like Facebook and YouTube. These statistics reflect both new and existing, legacy content.
SOCIAL MEDIA VIEWS
144,112 Video Views
224 New Subscribers
2,446 Content Interactions
570,413 Impressions
In addition to airing on our cable channels and on social media sites, many of our programs – like city meetings – are available On Demand on our website and on Roku, AppleTV, and Amazon Fire.
VIDEO ON DEMAND
994 VOD Views
939 Livestream Views
NMTV WEBSITE STATISTICS
18,377 Users
55,481 Page Views
CITY MEETINGS
North Metro TV staff members manage all aspects of city meeting video production for our member cities. This includes providing staff to record and direct the meetings, scheduling replays of the meetings on cable channel 16, providing online and Video On Demand copies of meeting, adding bookmarks to VOD meetings for easy viewing of individual topics, creating podcast versions of meetings, creating and managing closed captioning of all meetings, and seeing to the repair and maintenance of city hall video equipment.
This month, NMTV staff recorded 22 city meetings with 16 hours of video.
Meetings are scheduled for replay on cable based on schedules requested by each City. Additional, full length video programs, produced by NMTV staff, are also scheduled on the channels. Shorter videos and promos are loaded onto the CG servers, rather than being scheduled as separate playbacks. These short videos play back in a repeating cycle, along with graphics pages, and air on the channels between scheduled programs, 24 hours a day. The following data represents how many times a meeting was entered into the Tightrope scheduling system and played back on each City channel along with the total length of all programmed content.
Blaine – 166 replays, 188.5 hours
Centerville – 63 replays, 59 hours
Circle Pines – 143 replays, 90hours
Ham Lake – 70 replays, 18 hours
Lexington – 103 replays, 19 hours
Lino Lakes – 77 replays, 91 hours
Spring Lake Park – 40 replays, 6 hours
Bulletin Board
A bulletin board, or graphics pages, play on the city cable channels in between scheduled city meetings. These display information about the City, local events, and other issues of interest to citizens. With the installation of the CG servers, Eric Houston updates the information on all seven channels. He works closely with City staff to ensure that all requested informational slides are created and posted to the satisfaction of the city. Even though Eric is doing the work of creating the informational pages, the Cities maintain editorial control. In addition to the graphics pages, the CG units play video. Each video’s producer is responsible for posting any short videos that are displayed. The following work was done for City CG servers this month:
Blaine – 11 videos
Centerville – 7 videos
Circle Pines – 5 videos
Ham Lake – 7 videos
Lexington – 5 videos
Lino Lakes – 5 videos
Spring Lake Park – 6 videos, 2 slides
Closed Captioning
Closed captioning is an additional service provided by North Metro TV. Every city meeting is closed captioned live via our Tightrope system. That process is assigned a per-minute price by Tightrope. Once the meeting is recorded on our servers for repeat airings, that version of the meeting must be captioned separately. This is accomplished through a system owned by North Metro TV and does not incur additional costs. The following data tallies the number of minutes of captioning provided to each city for the month.
Blaine – 309 live minutes of closed captioning, 309 minutes of post closed captioning
Centerville – 213 live minutes of closed captioning, 213 minutes of post closed captioning
Circle Pines – 126 live minutes of closed captioning, 126 minutes of post closed captioning
Ham Lake – 76 live minutes of closed captioning, 76 minutes of post closed captioning
Lexington – 7 live minutes of closed captioning, 7 minutes of post closed captioning
Lino Lakes – 306 live minutes of closed captioning, 306 minutes of post closed captioning
Spring Lake Park – 41 live minutes of closed captioning, 41 minutes of post closed captioning
City Meetings On Demand
NMTV has created a Video on Demand service, with agenda item bookmarking, for our cities’ meetings. To accomplish this, each meeting goes through several steps. The meeting must first be transferred and transcoded from the playback server to the video on demand server. Once that is done, a staff member must go through the meeting, entering a bookmark at the start of each agenda item and entering the corresponding chapter titles. Next, the meeting is linked to the NMTV website’s city meeting page for Video on Demand. Finally, PDF copies of the meeting agenda are attached to the video. The following meetings were bookmarked and/or placed on VOD for the Cities this month:
Blaine – 4 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
Centerville – 4 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
Circle Pines – 3 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
Ham Lake – 3 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
Lexington – 1 meetings placed on VOD
Lino Lakes – 4 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
Spring Lake Park – 2 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
City Meeting Podccasts
NMTV provides a city meeting podcast service. Depending on each city’s wishes, any or all meetings can be converted. All podcasts are available across six platforms: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Amazon Music/Audible, iHeart Radio, and Pocket Casts. Links to each platform are available on each individual channel’s website and at northmetrotv.com/podcasts.
Blaine – uploaded 4 city meeting podcasts, 53 total downloads
Centerville – uploaded 4 city meeting podcasts, 224 total downloads
Circle Pines – uploaded 2 city meeting podcasts, 43 total downloads
Ham Lake – uploaded 2 city meeting podcasts, 57 total downloads
Lexington – uploaded 1 city meeting podcasts, 37 total downloads
Lino Lakes – has decided not to convert city meetings to podcasts
Spring Lake Park – uploaded 2 city meeting podcasts, 59 total downloads
City Meeting Transcripts
NMTV also provides a city meeting transcription service. Depending on each city’s wishes, any or all meetings can be transcribed. The transcripts are generated using an online platform called Otter.ai, which creates an interactive transcript that is broken down by speaker. Anyone using the transcript can click on any word to hear the meeting audio. Once created, links to each transcript are sent to relevant city staff, who often use the transcripts to help with creating meeting minutes.
Blaine – not participating
Centerville – created 4 city meeting transcripts
Circle Pines – created 3 city meeting transcripts
Ham Lake – created 3 city meeting transcripts
Lexington – not participating
Lino Lakes – created 4 city meeting transcripts
Spring Lake Park – created 2 city meeting transcripts
Equipment Consulting and Technical Support
The NMTV Station Engineer is also responsible for overseeing the maintenance and repair of city hall video systems related to recording city meetings. He is also available to answer video questions and consult on city equipment purchases. TJ Tronson also provides support for city meeting control rooms, particularly during meeting recordings. The following engineering services were provided to the cities this month:
Blaine – no assistance required
Centerville
- rebooted Tri-Caster production computer after a failure and restored web stream
- re-edited Centerville meeting to correct disruption from the Tri-Caster freeze
- offered city staff detailed coaching and troubleshooting tips for setting up Zoom for council meetings
- worked to reprogram a city staff laptop after updates from Metro Inet
Circle Pines
- responded to a report of a malfunctioning camera control joystick; updated system drivers to regain control
- programmed an additional staff laptop to work with Zoom
- noticed the station was not receiving signal from Circle Pines; found the city hall control room completely powered off; restarted and tested all systems
Ham Lake – no assistance required
Lexington – no assistance required
Lino Lakes
- provided support to city meeting staff during failure of Lino Lakes control room
- worked with city meeting staff to provide emergency back up recording via cellphone video
- enhanced cellphone video to provide better sound quality
- inspected city control room and determined the issue was with a faulty signal converter; replaced the signal converter
- met with city staff to discuss pre-meeting system testing procedures
Spring Lake Park – no assistance required
STATION AND FRANCHISE ADMINISTRATION
Co-Executive Directors Eric Houston and Danika Peterson manage the North Metro TV station and staff and act as franchise administrators. Franchise administration is the day to day management of the member cities’ cable television and broadband internet franchises. This includes resolving customer concerns, ensuring both quality service and availability to all households, ensuring maintenance of the rights of way, negotiations of new franchises, regular renegotiations of existing franchises, collecting PEG and franchise fees, conducting regular audits of franchisees, and handling any legal issues through the Commission Attorney.
Cable Franchise
- Reviewed city meetings for appointments to Cable Commission
- Created new contact sheet, reflecting the 2o26 Cable Commission members
- Updated and distributed On Boarding packet to 2026 Cable Commission members
- Distributed 2026 Cable Commission and Committee Meeting dates
- Reached out to 2026 Cable Commission members regarding participation in the Executive Committee
- Received Fourth Quarter Comcast Franchise and PEG Fees
ADA Accessibility
- Watched a Civic Clerk webinar on accessibility options
- Began preparing training curriculum for interested city staff
- Created html template for monthly reports to improve and simply their accessibility
Building Maintenance
- Met with alarm contractor Siemens about tying their fire detection system to the new attic dry system
- Met with alarm contractor Systems Technology for a competitive bid
Financials and Office Administration
- Sent Insurance Liability Waiver to League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust
- Updated health insurance information
- Met with accountant
- Began planning for annual audit
Networking
- Attended retirement party for Ann Genosky of MAYC
Staff Communication
- Continued regular meetings with station staff to foster communication and understanding and to create a more efficient workplace.
- Conducted employee annual reviews
- Continued with regular, twice monthly producers’ meetings
- Continued with monthly full staff meeting
- Continued with monthly NMTV Sports team meeting
Cable Customer Service
- Requests forwarded to Comcast
- Eileen Kraft of Ham Lake called on two separate occasions. On her first call, Ms. Kraft had questions about a $9 increase to her bill. She also expressed concern that she was not receiving all of her plan discounts. Later, Ms. Kraft called because she received a text message from Comcast threatening to send her account to a debt collector, even though, Ms. Kraft believed, her bill had been paid on time. We reached out to Comcast regarding both matters and they were able to resolve them.
- We also receive a steady stream of phone calls from Comcast customers who call us in error after finding our number on their bill. We typically provide them with the proper number for Comcast and recommend calling them directly to resolve the issue. If they cannot resolve the issue in this way, we invite them to call back. We received 7 such calls this month.
- 4 general billing questions
- 1 request for the address of the Xfinity Store
- 1 wanted to know how to find out his account balance while on vacation
- 1 wished to cancel a service appointment
Miscellaneous
- Reviewed Legal Report
- Read industry articles
- Attended webinars and meetings hosted by MACTA
- Created meeting agendas and packets
- Wrote monthly report
- Administered employee payroll and benefits
Viewer Comments
- Each month, the Co-Executive Directors field viewer comments over the phone and via NMTV social media channels. Here are some of this month’s highlights:
- “We appreciate you and your team’s efforts to cover the meeting last night by being innovative.” – Lino Lakes City Clerk Roberta Colotti regarding staff working to record a meeting even after the city control room failed
- “Thanks to North Metro and your staff. You have always been so supportive of covering our programs and events all these years.” – Ann Genosky of Blaine’s MAYC about her experiences with NMTV prior to her retirement
- “This is great info, short and straight to the point.” – YouTube user SS-kg6ns commenting on a video showing the affects of cold weather on local plants.
- “This old interview means so much to me… Joyce is my grandmother and I miss her very much since she passed. [I don’t know] if you’ll see this or anything, but thank you.” – YouTube user luistigerfox commenting on a 2013 interview video with local artist Joyce Vander Wyst.
- “My family and I want to express our gratitude for all your professional talents in putting together such a beautifully touching tribute for my dad’s memorial service. We absolutely love the video!!” – home movie transfer customer Tami Westphal
