By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
After a year of debate and study and six months of work, the city of Yachats went live with its new website Monday morning.
Its debut – the internet address is the same at yachatsoregon.org — coincides with a new and separate system for paying utility bills and licensing.
The new site is designed to be easier, more intuitive and logical for anyone to use.
It has five sections across the top of the site that lead people to city government, city services, visitor information and general help. Eight “buttons” at the bottom of the page lead to more detailed information such as City Council schedules, agendas and minutes, paying bills, recent documents, licensing and reporting issues to city staff.
“It’s logical, that’s what impresses me,” said Helen Anderson, who contracts with the city to record minutes of all meetings and who donated her time to manage the website changeover. “Once people see it and get used to it I think they’ll be real happy.”
If there are glitches, problems or other little things that city staff or web designers forgot or need to correct, those changes can now be easily made by staff or CivicPlus, the Kansas company which specializes in website projects for municipalities around the country. The only apparent glitch Monday morning, Anderson said, was getting the city’s weather station to communicate automatically with the new site — a problem that should be easily and quickly fixed.
The new site replaces one mostly built and maintained for years by former City Council member Greg Scott and his contract programmers. It was increasingly expensive for the city to maintain and was drawing more and more complaints from city staff and the public over its reliability and difficulty of use.
The YachatsOregon.org site has about 1,400 “users” and 2,600 “sessions” each month.
Yachats’ three-year contract with CivicPlus is for $12,633 a year, which includes the website redesign, rebuilding internet technology systems, transferring data, training, maintenance, support and web hosting. The city is paying another $5,250 a year for a program that allows people to directly schedule and pay for rooms and events in city facilities.
“For staff and in the backshop, the difference is huge,” Anderson said. “It’s simply quicker to use.”
For the public, Anderson believes two new features will be especially popular.
The web page has a “Notify me” button so anyone can sign up to get an alert when any item is posted for the City Council, various commissions, public works, emergencies, contract bids, job openings and the like.
The other feature is a “Report a concern” button where people can report problems ranging from noise, to potholes, to vacation rentals complaints to overgrown lots and be able to track that complaint through the system. The complaint goes to the appropriate department and if there is not a response in three days, the issue is brought to the attention of City Manager Shannon Beaucaire.
“We’re trying to get people back on track so they report problems again,” Anderson said.
The site also has a more readable calendar display for meetings, community events and public works projects.
Anderson and Beaucaire had hoped to get the new site up and running in late June, but delayed it for a month because it wasn’t quite ready and so the start would not overlap with the city’s switch to a new financial recording system.
One issue not yet resolved is providing access to all the contents of the current “document library” – PDFs of city records going back decades. That material is not being transferred to the new system, Anderson said, but will be available in a few months to anyone via a computer set up in city offices.
Anderson also had a small group of residents looking at the site in the later stages of its development, providing feedback and alerting her to glitches or problems.
James Kerti, a council member who is also a web designer/developer and was on the contractor selection committee, said he’s pleased with the site’s modern look, navigation features, ease of use for staff and residents, and technical support from CivicPlus.
“I came away impressed with it,” he said. “It’s going to be really helpful for the council and other departments to communicate what’s going on … what we do will be more transparent and widely known.”
Inevitably, Anderson expects some questions and complaints when the site goes up Monday. She will be monitoring those and responding – with the ability to post tutorials on the site to help people navigate or find what they want.
“I’m pleased with it. It’s a good site,” Anderson said. “It’s functional. People will be able to find what they’re looking for.”