Wellesley to launch redesigned website on Feb. 8
WELLESLEY TOWNSHIP’S WEBSITE IS almost done receiving a long overdue facelift, and residents will get to finally see it when it goes live on Feb. 8.
Karen Mayfield, president of eSolutions Group, visited council on Tuesday to show them what the website will look like and explain some of the new features. It will be tweaked a bit more over the next week before it’s unveiled.
“When you come to the new website you’re going to be presented with what we call a major call to action. This will be where the staff will tell the community what’s going on. So right now what we’ve done is we’ll tell about new services. Anybody that’s a vendor, that does work with the community, they’ll be able to sign up for bids and tenders, they’ll be able to ask their questions regarding tenders and it will make the staff be able to get back to people quicker,” Mayfield explained.
Creating the website was a seven-month process involving about 1,000 hours of work. Residents will be able to pay for animal licenses online, and the service will be expanded for things like burn permits and tax certificates in the future.
“We also have where people can subscribe to keep informed. What that means is basically public notices, it could be job opportunities, it could be emergencies. So if we had an emergency on the road with the storm, if you were signed up you would get that on your phone, which is really important. Also, you can sign up for any community events, council events and if something is closed you would automatically get a notification,” Mayfield said.
The staff can now build their own forms for the website without the help of planners.
Councillor Peter van der Maas asked if there will be the possibility for community members to post on the website. Mayfield says they have talked about that as an option in the second phase of the website where staff would be able to post surveys and host discussions with the community to get their input.