La Porte invites residents to test new website

The City of La Porte invites residents and its neighbors to take a test drive to see how its new website handles. Through May 22, residents are invited to go to www. testdrivethenewsite.com and respond to the feedback form. It’s similar to an online scavenger hunt.

The City of La Porte is inviting residents and its neighbors to go on a test drive to see how its new website handles.

Residents have until May 22 to go to www.testdrivethenewsite.com and respond to the feedback form.

It’s similar to an online scavenger hunt.

Jaree Hefner, marketing and public relations specialist for the city, said participants will be asked to identify certain functions on the site, like how to pay an online water bill, when the next city meeting is scheduled and who is their city council representative.

The city also wants feedback on how functional the new site is, Hefner said.

“We want to get a real idea of all the final features on the site,” she said. “We want to make sure all the information is where it needs to be.”

The idea behind the test drive is to give residents and neighbors an opportunity, before the site goes live, to guide decisions about the finishing touches, she added.

As an incentive, the city of La Porte is offering a prize that would be hard to pass up a Takamine guitar signed by their hometown star Jake Worthington.

Hefner said the city will draw the winner at noon on May 22 and the guitar will be given away on stage by the country star himself at the first annual Jake Worthington Family Picnic, scheduled for the following day.

Gates will open at 4 p.m. for the event at Lomax Arena, 1508 1/2 Lomax School Road in La Porte.

La Porte residents will be admitted free of charge by showing their driver’s license or water bill. They may also show up early at 3 p.m.

Entry for non-residents is $10.

At 5:30 p.m. there will be a Memorial Day opening service with a prayer, presentation of the colors and U.S. Armed Forces flags and a performance of the National Anthem and Taps.

Country music artist Hunter Hutchinson will take the stage at 6 p.m. and Worthington will perform at 8 p.m. There will also be activities for the whole family and food trucks will dish up dinner.

“This is kind of Jake Worthington’s homecoming show,” Hefner said.

She said he had been on tour the past year after finishing second on the hit television show “The Voice.”

She added that Lomax Arena was chosen as the site, because Worthington used to show animals there as a kid.

“The whole city just got behind Jake when he was on ‘The Voice,’ ” Hefner said. “His hometown fans stood behind him, and he wanted to say thank you in a big way. He’s a good old country boy from this town.”

She said the new website comes six years after the last redesign with the city’s current website provider.

“The site we currently have is not easy to update,” she said. “And we wanted to make sure our residents have all the latest information, all the time, in every area.”

Last year, during the budget process, the city moved forward with a new website company CivicPlus and reserved $32,000 for the project.

“CivicPlus provides really clean designs that are easy for residents to navigate,” Hefner said.

“The back-end, where staff uses the site to add information, is really easy to use as well.

“It empowers our staff and makes them able to keep information up-todate.”

The company has been working with the city for the past five months to design the site, upload the information and train staff on how to use it.

CivicPlus will also provide software that allows the city to send regular newsletters and will build a mobile app as well.

“The new site is definitely a dramatic facelift,” Hefner said.

“We want to make sure our residents have an opportunity to see it and that they are able to navigate it the way we envision.”

She hopes that users will enjoy the change.

During the week of the test drive, residents are invited to call and chat with the launch team if they have any questions or need any guidance.

“We want to familiarize them with the site, engage them and get them to use the site more often,” Hefner said.

Traci Leach, assistant city manager, said that it was time for a new site.