Zoom gloom, again

To the Editor:

The Zoom internet feed of the July 22 Berne Town Board public hearing and monthly board meeting in the park matched the one in June — a mostly incomprehensible jumble of sound, featuring muffled voices that sounded as if board members and their microphones were at the bottom of a tall barrel with the voices dribbling from the bung hole.

Add frequent interruption of those voices with brief periods of silence and you have the public hearing in a nutshell.

The board meeting continued in the same vein, supplemented with speakers talking over each other. Curiously, the town attorney’s voice had good clarity. (Did he bring a good microphone from home, or have a particular skill with town equipment?)

Clearly, this was not a Zoom technical issue. Standard offerings like that would have bankrupted the corporation long before now.

Let’s hope the Zoom meeting administered by the Berne Planning Board this Thursday will be successful. (Access information is on the Town website. Click on the Planning Board tab under “Boards & Depts.”)

In any case, it seems that residents needing to listen to meetings from home have been put out of their misery. The town website announcing the next board meeting (Aug. 26 at the park) omits information about Zoom access.

And that’s too bad. In these awful, viral times, there must be residents who will not go to the park out of concern for their health and that of their family, neighbors, and friends.

George Christian

Berne

 

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