Time Warner Cable customers in Holly Springs can soon expect to see their own faces lighting up government access television on channel 11.

“Holly Springs TV” is set to launch July 11 and will feature town happenings, government meetings, weather and news. The channel will do an initial switch-over from Cary town programming on June 1, showing some pre-taped meetings, videos and messages — a ramp-up month to what staff hopes will become must-see TV in Holly Springs.

“We’re going to communicate with people but we’re also going to entertain them,” said Joni Powell, Holly Springs’ town clerk for the past 15 years. “We’re saving some surprises for July 11.”

It’s been a long time coming for the growing town of 20,000 residents. They’ve been negotiating with Time Warner to get their own station for over a decade.

“We had the idea for a long time,” said Powell. “The biggest hurdle was getting access to the channel.”

It was 1997 when Holly Springs’ town council decided against Time Warner’s offer to split channel 11’s signal with Cary’s existing programming for a little over $50,000. That was before the digital age, and Time Warner said it had to make expensive physical changes to engineer the split, according to Powell.

Fast forward a few years when Time Warner did some corporate restructuring and had to have Holly Springs, as one of its franchisers, sign off on the deal.

“We said, ‘sure, [but] give us our channel,’’ said Powell. The time came in January, when Time Warner offered to split channel 11 for $16,000. Holly Springs agreed, and by March everything was in place — except for the programming.

“In the space of a few months, Joni had to start a new TV channel,” said Mark Andrews, the town’s public information officer.

Powell and Andrews, along with a handful of other staff and two college interns went into overdrive, researching equipment, planning programs and learning editing software to get the channel up and running by summer.

“We want to make it enjoyable,” Powell said. “We want [residents] to automatically think, ‘I’m going to channel 11 and see what’s going on.’”

She hopes to grow enough interest so the town has another outlet to reach residents quickly with emergency announcements or other vital information.

But the planning has been challenging for town government staff who never expected to be television producers.

“I’m an old newspaper girl,” said Powell, once a reporter for the Fuquay-Varina Independent and the Sanford Herald, among others. “If anything, I had disdain for TV.” Andrews also has a background in journalism.

With those backgrounds, they want to create a kind of “local newspaper on TV.” They envision enlivening the channel with performances from the cultural center, a news magazine and vibrant town events, in addition to the usual offerings of public meetings.

“We want to get Holly Springs residents on TV,” said Andrews.

The June 1 switch-over will not affect satellite, antenna or Deacon cable viewers in Holly Springs. Cary Time Warner customers will continue to see “Cary TV 11” on channel 11.