Oxford County residents now have an option to keep up with what is going on at the county level with recordings of commissioners’ meetings posted on YouTube.

The meetings are available at youtube.com/@OxfordCountyGovernment. The Feb. 5 and 17 meetings have been posted.

“We are utilizing NPC-TV, which is Pete Morton from Norway/Paris Cable-TV,” county Administrator Zane Loper wrote in an email. “It takes him about four hours a meeting to prepare and upload the video at a cost of $220, which is consistent with what it costs Franklin County to use their local cable TV station.”

There was a lot involved to format the recordings, including time for Oxford County staff.

Commissioner Chairwoman Lisa Keim had pushed for the meeting recordings to be posted in the interest of Oxford County residents.

“I believe strongly in transparency of government and made increasing this for the County as my top priority,” Keim wrote in an email in December.  

People interested in watching the Oxford County meetings live can go to the Oxford County website, oxfordcounty.org/meetings, and click on the agenda for a meeting in the meetings category. There is a link near the top of the agenda to join the meeting live on Teams.

“We don’t have a lot of people in county government, so with all the other urgent issues that naturally arise, making our meetings available online, both to watch in real time and recorded, has taken a frustratingly long time,” Keim previously said.

She said she knew that those interested could watch the meeting live, but the recordings were not posted online.

“This leaves a big gap in people’s ability to engage and understand county government decisions,” Keim had said.

During the Feb. 17 meeting, she thanked everyone involved for making the recordings available.

Franklin County pays $6,450 a year to Central Maine Media Alliance to have its commissioners’ meetings recorded by Mt. Blue TV Community Access Channel. However, someone can contact the Commissioners Office and ask for the Zoom recording of the live meeting.

Androscoggin County staff oversees commission live meetings and recordings on Zoom and posts a link on the county’s website.