Sewickley Hills officials recently launched a new website to boost communication with residents and businesses.
The site, sewickleyhills.com, was created in partnership with municipal website builders Town Web.
Borough secretary Diana Steele said council reviewed at least three service providers and worked on the project with Town Web for nine months. It went live in late March.
“This site has more interaction options than our old website,” Steele said. “We felt it necessary to change vendors to make the website more user-friendly.”
The front page features links for recent posts and a space for residents to submit comments.
A calendar of upcoming events is toward the bottom of the page, as well as a place for people to subscribe for borough alerts and updates. There is even a local weather forecast at the lower right of the page.
Searching for meeting agendas and minutes was made easier with filters that narrow dates and types of meetings.
People can plug in the month, day and year of a meeting they wish to check instead of scrolling through a long list.
A list of borough fees and permits is under the “Community” drop-down menu.
Councilman Hunter Hopkins was one of the borough leads on the project.
“The time had come,” he said. “The old website, the design was a bit outdated.”
Town Web was selected out of several vendors.
“Because they are a platform that very specifically supports municipalities and boroughs, the functionality we were looking for came in at an attractive price point,” Hopkins said of the company selection.
“It gives us every tool to communicate with residents. We’re excited. I think it’s a step forward for us. It lets us do updates in a more convenient way. I think it’s a more intuitive website that lets us be more transparent with our residents and community.”
Steele said the cost for the website is $4,200 for four years.
Michael DiVittorio is a TribLive reporter covering general news in Western Pennsylvania, with a penchant for festivals and food. He can be reached at mdivittorio@triblive.com.