Liz Ayers, WCNY’s director of development and grants, will be the featured speaker at the Rome Rotary luncheon set for noon Tuesday at the Franklin Hotel, 301 S. James St.

The public may attend. Lunch is $10 per person and reservations can be made by contacting Deb Krycskowski at M&T Bank at 337-2957 with your name and number of people in the party. The deadline for reservations is Monday.

Ayers will talk about WCNY’s new Broadcast and Education Center, which is scheduled to open in downtown Syracuse this November. The facility will transform how public broadcasting is delivered throughout central New York and the entire state.

"With our new Broadcast and Education Center, WCNY is becoming the model for PBS in the 21st century," Ayers said. "And though we’re physically located in Syracuse, we serve Rome and 1.8 million viewers in 19 counties — and beyond."

The 56,000-square-foot Broadcast and Education Center will feature the latest in broadcast technology and PBS’ first joint master control, where broadcast signals will be delivered from WCNY to all the public broadcasting stations in New York.

At the same time, the facility is employing the latest technology to reduce its carbon footprint. When it’s complete, WCNY expects the building’s green technology to qualify it for LEED Platinum certification.

As part of WCNY’s educational mission, the new facility also will be home to "Enterprise America," a 10,000-square-foot hands-on learning center that will teach middle and high school students about government and business by having them run a "mock" city. The center is a first in New York state.

Ayers will answer questions about the new facility and provide information about the $20 million campaign for WCNY.

The station has raised more than $17 million toward the goal and is embarking on a grass-roots effort to help raise the final $3 million.