Bradford City Mayor James McDonald made an announcement via social media Thursday that the city is holding a meeting today that will be a first.

“For the first time in the history of Bradford, Pennsylvania, we will be live-streaming a City Council meeting (today) at 5pm,” McDonald said. “It will be available to be watched in real-time on this Facebook page and will be able to be viewed at later times at the same place as well.”

He went on to explain that the meeting is closed to the public due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Topics on the agenda include extending the state of emergency order for the city and business items that are timely and require attention.

City residents who would like to ask a question can submit one to councilmeeting@bradfordpa.com between the times of 5:05-5:15pm.

“This is a trial run and there will be bugs to work out later, I can promise you,” McDonald noted. “But I can also promise you that I’ve already been speaking with IT people about the best way to set up for live-streaming every council meeting, including the possible addition of microphones, etc. Necessity is the mother of invention.”

McDonald explained that, while the Coronavirus has made it necessary to pursue this avenue of livestreaming city council meetings, it is his goal to continue to make meetings available this way to residents who “work in the evenings, people who are confined to their homes and people with general scheduling issues that make it hard to come to meetings.”

“I would eventually like to see a dedicated YouTube channel for the Bradford City Council,” McDonald stated.