By Amber Morris
Arlington is inviting bids to lease the town-owned building occupied by Arlington Community Media Inc., a move that could displace the public-access cable station.
ACMi has been at 85 Park Ave. since 2006, and the station’s board president worries about what will happen if it loses the space.
“Without that studio we would be homeless,” said John Leone, president of the board of directors at ACMi. “I don’t know how we would continue to function.” He said he doesn’t know of any other places in town that could host ACMi and its equipment.
State law requires a competitive bidding process for real property transactions when the total cost of the transaction exceeds $35,000, regardless of appraised value. This rent abatement would be in addition to the $100,000 from the town budget that was approved at the spring Town Meeting.
Arlington has neglected to invite offers for bids at 85 Park Ave. since ACMi moved in 19 years ago, said Norm McLeod, ACMi’s executive director. The deputy town manager of operations, Christine Bongiorno, said she searched for documentation of a previous request for proposals and was not sure whether the property had previously gone out to bid.
Although it’s unclear, McLeod speculated that turnover of town staff and elected officials played into the failure to issue requests for proposals in 2016 as required.
Bids for a three-year lease, renewable for two additional years, are due by 10 a.m. on Sept. 26.
“Without that studio we would be homeless.”
Any people or groups wishing to lease the space must provide “educational, cultural, or community service activities to the residents of Arlington,” according to the request for proposals.
ACMi pays $45,116 a year to lease the 4,200-square-foot, brick building, under the current lease agreement. If ACMi lost the space, it would require rethinking the entire operation, Leone said. “We would not be able to provide probably 90% of the services we provide,” he said.
ACMi broadcasts government meetings, elections, community events and youth programs.
“We’re sort of like a mirror that is being held up to the Arlington community where they can see themselves, their grandchildren, and their children on TV,” McLeod said. “The community looks to us to cover events.”
ACMi has served as a crucial link between Arlington and its residents, providing unbiased information and civic engagement for the benefit of the community, Leone said. “Besides YourArlington, we’re the only real link left between the citizens and the government of the town of Arlington,” he said.
The town provided ACMi with $100,000 in financial support this year to help keep the nonprofit afloat amid the downturn in cable revenues. This rent abatement would be in addition to the $100,000 from the town budget that was approved at the spring Town Meeting. The proposed rent plan was announced by Town Manager Jim Feeney during a Town Meeting session in May. The request for proposals went out recently.
Public-access stations, which are funded by fees included in cable bills, are facing challenges across the country. As people migrate from cable to streaming services, less money is available for public-access stations. ACMi’s funding from cable fees has declined by 18% since 2022, McLeod said.
The local cable operation receives the majority of its funding through a state program, which takes 5 percent of user-paid subscription fees for public, educational, and/or governmental (PEG) public access programming. Unlike some neighboring communities, Arlington has passed on all of that funding to support ACMi’s efforts. That “PEG” funding of $680,281 was approved on May 21.
On May 28, the last night of the annual Town Meeting, members approved a warrant article by a vote of 191 to 19 to give $100,000 of taxpayer money to supplement ACMi’s annual budget. The Finance Committee proposed $100,000, but supporters of ACMi sought to increase that to $200,000. That amendment was rejected by Town Meeting.
The people who still have cable television in Arlington are subsidizing ACMi for the rest of the town. ACMi has a lot of older viewers, McLeod said. “In the middle of the winter, they may want to go to a meeting and be involved in community events or community government,” he said, “and they can’t do that if the weather is really bad.”
The building at 85 Park Ave. is fiber-optically wired to Comcast, Verizon, RCN, Arlington High School and Town Hall. “If we lost that building we would lose that hub,” Leone said.
This story is part of a partnership between Your Arlington and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
This article was originally published on September 24, 2025.