POCATELLO — Recent cuts to the city’s community access cable TV budget won’t necessarily mean the end of popular resident-produced programs, such as La Voz Latina and Fit and Fall Proof.

A small group of local residents have applied with Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney’s office to form a nonprofit to assume control of Community Access Channel 64.

The City Council voted to cut funding for the channel during its Aug. 16 meeting, trimming about $170,000 from a municipal budget that was ultimately approved at just over $112 million. The cuts will take effect Oct. 1, at the start of the new budget cycle. The city will continue operating channels covering local education, with supplemental financial support from Pocatello-Chubbuck School District 25, and meetings of city government.

Anna Reed-Spencer, Lisa Smith and Ryan Babcock will serve as board members of the new nonprofit. Westside Players has offered the nonprofit space in its warehouse for filming. The city will use the vacated video services space to accommodate growth of its planning department.

Reed-Spencer said the arrangement with the theater company should work in the short term. In the long term, she hopes to find a new space, or renovate an unimproved area of the warehouse as a studio.

“I am a firm believer that the community should have a voice, and public access is one way for the community to have a voice in a public forum,” Reed-Spencer said, adding the nonprofit also plans to continue streaming programing online.

Reed-Spencer, who is experienced at grant writing, has been seeking potential sources of grant revenue to pursue, once the nonprofit status is approved. She also hopes to work with an established nonprofit for assistance in pursuing grants, by capitalizing on the credibility of the partner organization’s longevity.

Mayor Brian Blad said the city will give some of its cameras to the new nonprofit. A city spokesman said a full-time worker will be moved from video services to the information technology department, and two part-time workers will be dismissed.

John Hahn, a video services production assistant, is poised to lose his position but plans to continue as a volunteer with the nonprofit, which he’s been instrumental in organizing. Hahn estimates even a streamlined community access channel, with volunteers, would cost a minimum of $30,000 per year to run. He said paid staff could be restored in the future, if the programming receives strong community support.

The city has operated cable access programming since 1977. The service had been funded with cable franchise fee revenue, paid from a line item on cable subscribers’ bills in compensation for the use of public rights-of-way for infrastructure. Those payments have been declining, and cities aren’t obligated to earmark them toward cable access programming.

Hahn said the nonprofit hopes to restore community access TV with no more than a day’s interruption.

City officials say about a dozen people regularly take advantage of the opportunity to share their views through community access programs. Hahn said most of them plan to continue their programs under the nonprofit.

Hahn said one of the state’s longest running community access shows is La Voz Latina. The host interviews interesting or influential community residents. He said the Idaho State University Physical Therapy Department staffs another popular show, Fit and Fall Proof, which is an exercise-based fall-prevention program.

Hahn said he hears complaints when the show doesn’t air, and viewers often buy DVDs of the program.