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City to upgrade council chambers with ARPA funds
• Okay given to upgrade audio and visual equipment; hold placed on remodeling
Dais Ceres chambers
Improvements will be made to the audio visual components of the Ceres City Council dais, seen here in July.

Improvements will be made to the audio-visual system used by the Ceres City Council in the chambers of a Ceres Community Center room, paid for by the U.S. taxpayers.

In March the council approved the use of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) on various city projects, including audio visual upgrades to the Council Chambers. A total of $190,000 was allocated to the City Clerk’s Office to pay for a number of things, including an estimated $150,000 for construction changes to the dais – which are not going to take place anytime soon. However, a number of upgrades still need to be made to the audio-visual equipment within the Council Chambers.

Those $43,465 worth of improvements will include:

• Monitors at the dais for the mayor, councilmembers, city manager, and city attorney;

• Push to speak notification system;

• Speaker system with amplification;

• Programming add-ons to wall touch panel;

• Web based backup controls

• Installation and labor.

• $3,663.65 for new microphones at the dais as well as the city manager’s and city attorney’s seats. 

The end result, said City Clerk Fallon Martin, will be to assist with a more seamless council meeting, eliminate the use of the TV monitor currently used in front of the dais, and provide proper backup in the event there is equipment failure.

Since the audio-visual upgrades exceed the amount of ARPA funds allocated, staff recommends using a portion of the money set aside for the council dais remodel.

The work will be performed by West Coast Sound and Light as the firm is familiar with the current setup, controls, and previous audio-visual upgrades. 

The ARPA allocation will also pay for the city to digitalize the city’s microfilm records at a cost of $25,000 and audio and camera control upgrades to the chambers at a cost of $15,000.