On Tuesday, Feb. 1, the Fenton Township Board of Trustees approved allocating $58,610 in funding for technology that benefits area schools.
Lake Fenton, Linden, Fenton and Hartland school districts submitted a combined Public Education Grant (PEG) through the Fenton Area Cable Television (F.A.C.T.) consortium. The communities represented by the F.A.C.T. board are Linden, Fenton, Fenton Township and Tyrone Township. These agencies can apply for funding to receive the PEG monies from Charter Communications.
The funds are funneled through local municipalities and distributed to schools for video equipment, media equipment and other technology. The money will go toward upgrading and replacing video equipment for creation of PEG Channel video content, according to Fenton Township meeting minutes.
“The FACT Consortium has reviewed and approved the applications, and recommended approval of funding up to a maximum of $142,880.46. The allocation of the costs is based on annual PEG fee receipts for each community,” the minutes state.
The proposed funding is allocated as follows:
Fenton Township: 44.2067%, $58,610.31
City of Fenton: 26.8507%, $35,599.34
Tyrone Township: 16.6435%, $32,364.31
(Tyrone Township funds 100% of the Hartland Schools application.)
City of Linden: 12.2991%, $16,306.50
Thomas Broecker, Fenton Township operations manager and deputy clerk, said the program is in good shape. He wrote to the board that final costs are typically lower than what is approved due to price reductions between the time the proposal is developed and the equipment is ordered.
It’s requested that municipalities provide an “up to” amount and payments to the funding recipients will occur after costs are finalized.
These funds are from the Township’s restricted fund balance. PEG fees can only be used to support PEG television programming
Gloss