LETTER: Streaming is key when “You can’t get there from here”

April 20, 2026

By Sandy Ward

To the Editor:

Count me among those who strongly support livestreaming of select board meetings in Stonington.

It makes sense on so many levels. The practice likely will lead to greater participation in the debates that shape our town. At the very least it will improve understanding and appreciation of the procedures and deliberations that go into governing Stonington. Widening the reach of meetings will deepen connections and lead to a more informed and resilient community.

Livestreaming is standard practice already in scores of towns and cities across Maine, the second most rural state in the country. It’s important to understand, too, that this is really nothing new. Prior to being able to stream meetings over mobile devices and computer laptops, many towns and cities in Maine were broadcasting meetings on local government access cable television channels. Many continue to do so and offer both options.

“You can’t get there from here” is a very real Maine phenomenon that finds folks traveling long distances to work, shop, attend medical appointments, and watch their kids compete in sports, leaving little time for many to be able to show up at select board meetings in the evening.

In Stonington’s working waterfront community, fishermen and dock hands are up early and put in long days on the water. Plumbers, electricians, teachers and public health and safety professionals work in demanding jobs and are often on-call to respond to emergencies. Many folks in the service industries are working three jobs just to make ends meet. Schedules don’t often allow time to attend meetings physically.

With Maine boasting the oldest population in the nation, it’s also vital to provide access to those who may not be able to attend meetings in person due to physical or transportation challenges.

People travel, especially in the winter months, and yet want to stay in the know.

The inability of many to attend in person shouldn’t be interpreted as a lack of interest.

In this digital and mobile age, the tools exist to enable most citizens to attend virtually and we should use them. Stonington has the equipment it needs to stream, and on occasion it does so using Zoom. There are many different platforms to use, including YouTube, Facebook Live, Town Hall Streams, in addition to Zoom. Storage is available free on YouTube and can be linked to other platforms.

I spoke with town administrators in Lincoln, Lubec, and Thomaston recently for a sense of their experiences with streaming and all described it as very useful, beneficial, and popular. Outside of very occasional technical glitches, they said there were no downsides. Rather than detract from in-person attendance, some said there was a noticeable increase, especially when hot-button issues were on the agenda.

They noted, too, that streaming boosted office efficiency, particularly in promptly compiling and publishing a record of meeting minutes. That could be a boon to Stonington whose town office has been plagued by high staff turnover the past few years and publishing minutes in a timely fashion as required by law has gone by the wayside. For instance, no minutes from select board meetings in Stonington were posted or made available from May 5, 2025, until the second week of March 2026 when the minutes of 14 select board meetings between May 19, 2025, through Feb. 16, 2026, appeared. Since then, the minutes from a meeting April 6, 2026, recently appeared. No planning board minutes have been posted since April 17, 2025. Many committees seem never to post minutes.

Those opposed to streaming in Stonington—mostly town officials—have cited potentially high costs, a possible breakdown in civic participation, and concerns that the “real decision making” would move “outside of public view and outside of public sway” as select board members become “more guarded, and more performative” as the chairman of the select board wrote in an opinion piece published here March 24.

Select board meetings, except for executive sessions when sensitive personnel or legal matters are typically discussed, are open, public meetings. Board members should expect to behave in the same professional and civil manner whether the citizens they represent and who elected them are in the room or online.

Stonington’s concerns are not borne out by the experiences in other Maine towns and cities that livestream meetings. Those municipalities are finding streaming leads to greater transparency and better management at an affordable cost without impacting board members’ ability to govern.

The time has come for Stonington to livestream its select board meetings.

–Sandy Ward lives in Stonington.

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