Panel OKs new information screen in state Senate

Friday, Aug. 14, 1998 | 11:05 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A legislative committee has agreed to spend $95,000 to install a giant electronic reader board in the Senate to quiet complaints of some members who say they can't read the present screen.

The new screen will be 10-feet high and 12-feet wide and will flash such things as schedules for committee meetings, bills that are being voted on and other announcements.

There were complaints from senators in the extreme corners of the chambers that they could not read the present arrangement which consists of four electronic boards, each 2-by-4 feet, placed above the front podium where the president of the Senate presides.

Those screens were installed only two years ago and used during the 1997 session.

Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, suggested that the announcements and other things displayed on the new giant board also be fed into the laptop computers used by the senators. "It will help those where the board is not visible," he said.

Steve Watson, the deputy director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, said the information from the screen would be relayed to monitors in the building for the public, lobbyists and press to view.

Members of the Legislative Committee on Computer Application, which met earlier this week, said that if this new screen proves effective, the Assembly may want to change its electronic board.