After more than a year of discussion, the City of Athens’ website will see a $30,000 facelift.
Last year, Athens City Council submitted the city’s website to Civic Plus’ Extreme Makeover Website contest in the hopes of receiving a complete website makeover free of charge.
Though the site did not win, the city qualified for a $5,000 discount for the work of Civic Plus, which is the leading developer of webpages for city and county governments. With the discount, the project will cost about $28,000.
The success in the contest sparked further discussion about the website, said Scott Thompson, director of the city’s Government Channel and a leader of the website redesign project.
“Redesigning the website became a big priority for the city as a whole,” Thompson said.
The goal is to make the website’s overall navigation easier, Thompson said.
Council members, with the help of the people at Civic Plus, began to look at other websites that the company had produced in an effort to draw from the examples of others. Among the favorites were the websites of Castle Rock, Colo., Normal, Ill., San Mateo, Calif. and Parkland, Fla.
One of the features Councilwoman Christine Knisely said she enjoyed was a polling system and a “notify me” feature that informs residents of important news.
“The polls appealed to me because people can log on and tell the city what they want and allows them to share their opinions about how the city operates,” Knisely said.
Council members saw those different websites, decided what they liked and disliked from each, and plan to use certain aspects for their own website.
Though a website redesign would benefit communication between residents and the city government, the cost of the project has some people concerned.
“Anything that benefits the Athens community is a good thing,” said Maria Scarmack, Athens resident and owner of So Livi’s boutique. “While it does cost a lot, you need to keep up with the times and that means having user-friendly Internet access to what’s going on in the city.”
The redesign of the website will be more efficient and effective, Thompson said, adding that the decision to proceed with the project was an easy one to make.
“Any website that is effective will save time,” Thompson said. “Almost every department saw the benefits.”
This website, with its easy-to-use design and new features, will save time, be more efficient and will benefit Athens as a whole.
In the opinion of Thompson, the project is a “good use of money [that] serves the public.”
Members are aiming to launch the website in mid-August.
cw105510@ohiou.edu
