LAKE COUNTY – TV8 is the public access cable channel for all cable wired Lake County. It is available for all public and noncommercial private uses. TV8 is also the only local TV station of any kind located in Lake County.

TV8 could become critical in managing an emergency. Not only is visual media more effective for conveying certain types of information but some disasters that might affect our local radio broadcasters on the west shore of Clear Lake may not disable a cable operation on the south end of the lake. It's good to have options.

As many of you know, TV8 is located in a secure and convenient location inside the Clearlake City Hall building which also houses the police department. People would be shocked if this valuable public resource were not fully utilized in a life threatening emergency.

There are several ways agencies responding to an emergency can use TV8. The county has their connecting equipment in the Board of Supervisors chamber (They have the ability to override our signal remotely with just a phone call and begin broadcasting live). But their normal operator lives in Ukiah and others who can operate the equipment are not in emergency services.

The easiest way to go live directly is to relay as much information as possible to the Clearlake Police Department and let them be the on camera spokesperson. At this time, no one has been designated from Clearlake to receive the brief instructions necessary to go live unassisted.

In all parts of the county, emergency managers can use TV8's Web Nexus interface to broadcast their emergency messages via the Internet on TV8. They would need to contact TV8's volunteer station manager, Allen Markowski, to get a user name, password, and again, some brief instructions. This is not to be confused with our old standby of sending submissions to the scrolling bulletin board through TV8's Web site.

Although authorities may feel more comfortable using other notification procedures, they may not be operational when they are needed most or they might not reach all residents who need and expect timely warnings and instructions.