LTV Launches GoFundMe Campaign for Roof Replacement

LTV, East Hampton Town’s not-for-profit public access television and media platform, has launched a GoFundMe campaign with a tall order: the roof of the 100-foot-by-100-foot building housing its studios and offices on Industrial Road in Wainscott is in need of extensive repair.

The campaign, at bit.ly/46fGG8M, launched on Monday with a goal to raise $100,000 toward the cost, which has been estimated at between $236,000 and $356,000. As of Tuesday, $500 had been pledged. LTV is also seeking loans and grants, as well as donations to offset any loans.

LTV owns its building, which resembles an airplane hangar, and leases the property from the town. “After 30 years, the roof is aging out,” Michael Clark, LTV’s executive director, wrote on the GoFundMe site. “We’ve done several repairs on it already and have been told that it’s time.”

Clark reiterated this week that “we’ve been putting Band-Aids on it for the last couple of years,” but leaks in the roof are “showing up all over the place” in the building’s interior including the kitchen studio and second-story offices. “Basically, it’s office space, so far, that’s taken the hit,” he said, while broadcast equipment and the main stage, in LTV’s Studio 3, have been spared, to date. But “we don’t want to wait until we lose thousands of dollars’ worth of broadcasting equipment due to the roof.”

Whether or not the intense rainfalls that are one manifestation of climate change have contributed to the roof’s deterioration cannot be proven, Clark said, but “without a doubt it’s raining much, much harder, just in the five years I’ve been here. There seem to be more intense storms and, especially if we get something blowing in a certain direction, we just get creamed.” The building has also experienced flooding, costing thousands of dollars to address, he said.

Around four experts examined the roof, including aerial surveys via drone, Clark said. “The common ground seems to be about a quarter of a million dollars to do the roof.”

LTV’s leadership and board of directors met to strategize fundraising. The consensus, Clark said, was to seek grants, loans and donations, and “that we have to take a multi-pronged approach in trying to raise that kind of money. In situations like this, every dollar helps. Someone in that meeting said, ‘What about GoFundMe?’ I hadn’t thought about that. On the first day we got $500, which was wonderful. Who knows where it goes from here?”

LTV broadcasts two channels 24 hours per day on the Altice cable television provider. Its Channel 20 broadcasts public-access programming, for which the public is welcome to film at the studio and/or submit finished content for airing, while Channel 22 is its education and government channel, broadcasting live meetings. To that end, it maintains equipment at East Hampton Town Hall and the Emergency Services Building in East Hampton Village. Programming is also accessible live and on demand via its website, ltveh.org, and its YouTube channel.

Its operating budget comes from Altice, funneled through the town and village, with a modest additional sum from Southampton Town. “Everything else is essentially private donations or commercial rentals of the space,” Clark said. But “that’s tough to build a budget on because there’s no guarantee, it’s sporadic. We really don’t make any money on shows — that’s pretty much a break-even thing, providing us with content for the channels when we film for public access.”

LTV has increased its value as a resource for the community by hosting a multitude of events including concerts, plays, fundraisers and art exhibitions. Performing arts and arts education organizations like South Fork Performing Arts, Our Fabulous Variety Show and Hampton Ballet Theatre School also rent space at LTV. “That’s a source of income — not a lot, but it’s more money coming in,” Clark said. “Creating an awareness of LTV has been a big thing for us, so that people know and understand what we do and the service that we provide. We’re trying to do things that can generate a little revenue so we can keep our community services running.”

But, he added, “the cost of everything is out of control.”