COOS BAY —  Interested in city government, but don’t want to attend the meetings?

No problem.

In October, PEG Broadcasting Services Inc. — Coos County’s local public access and government television channels — will begin posting some programming online, starting with recordings of Coos Bay and North Bend city council meetings.

Don Van Dyke, station manager and president of PEG, said those meetings, normally broadcast on Channel 14, will be placed on a Web site administered by the organization, and could be available on the municipalities’ sites as well. Providing the meetings online would give viewers greater access to city government while cutting out the wait. PEG broadcasts new meetings on Saturdays — typically several days after they’ve occurred. PEG’s station at Ed Lund Park in Empire also broadcasts material for Channel 98.

“No. 1, there’s a lot of people who don’t have access to cable in Coos County. And No. 2, it would be more convenient. ... Instead of waiting three or four hours to come on to the channel, it’ll be readily available,” Van Dyke said.

Another advantage of going online is viewers will be able to get video on demand. All future video would be archived, starting in October, so users could access past meetings. He emphasized that the delayed Web broadcasts would not replace what’s available on Channel 14.

“I only show the current material on cable. But, with video on demand, you’d be able to see past meetings. I can’t do that for you now,” Van Dyke said.

Both the Coos Bay and North Bend municipal meetings will be posted on http://www.coosbaynorthbend.org, a site administered by PEG, Van Dyke said. PEG does not have contracts with either city to provide material online at this point, but is able to post the recordings online because they are considered public information. Even if the cities decide against providing the recordings on their sites, Van Dyke said he plans to offer it anyway.

“It’s up to North Bend and Coos Bay how and when they’re going to put it up,” Van Dyke said. “Right now, I’m only starting out with ... two formats. The city of Coos Bay and the city of North Bend.”

The online broadcasts likely would be available either as Flash Streaming video files or Flash Progressive. In a Flash Progressive format, the viewer would have the ability to fast forward.

If all goes well, recordings of PEG’s six other customers, including the city of Bandon, the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay, the Coos Bay School District, and the Coos County Commissioners, also may be broadcast online, along with public access shows and other recordings aired on Channel 98.

Van Dyke demurred from sharing the cost, as he hasn’t discussed these matters with the cities. He added that he’s still working out the kinks and is narrowing down vendors who can help put the material online.

“We’re not 100 percent there. Sometime in October it will be available on our Web site for sure,” Van Dyke said.

The station manager said the idea to use the Web as another vehicle to broadcast material came while he worked with Charter Communications and the city of North Bend to launch a third channel for PEG. When that didn’t work out in July, he turned to the Internet.

“My comeback to this is: Let’s go online,” Van Dyke said.

The Coos Bay City Council  has not reviewed the matter, said Coos Bay City Manager Chuck Freeman, although he has casually discussed the matter with Van Dyke, who must present the topic for approval.

“We need to determine what the costs are to the city, what are the benefits, the negatives, see if it’s something they want to do,” Freeman said.

North Bend City Administrator Jan Willis said  she talked about the online broadcasts in passing with Van Dyke last week. While she said she’d be fine with posting the broadcasts on the city’s Web site, it would be up to the city council to decide.

“If it’s available, I think it would be a nice thing to have on our Web site,” Willis said.