Trustees Get Tour of New Village Website

In a little over two weeks, the ’s new website will go live.

On Tuesday, trustees got their final look at the layout and design of the new site, and they liked what they saw. The $14,357 site was designed by Kansas-based company CivicPlus, and is set to launch on Dec. 9 after more than six months of work.

It will be the village’s first new site since 2003, when the current one was created with the help of a Kane County Small Cities grant. And the intention of the designers was to improve on the current website in virtually every way.

A team of eight village employees representing every department honed the content of the new site, using input gathered from community surveys. On Tuesday, trustees got to see the actual site in action – it’s currently hosted on CivicPlus’ server, and most of its functional content is active.

Jamie Belongia, assistant to the village manager, showed off the new features. The site will include information on every village department, a calendar of events, a directory of Montgomery businesses and resources, an agenda center where residents can see what their elected officials are up to, and a comprehensive feedback center, where residents can leave concerns, complaints and requests in 27 different categories.

As Belongia explained, requests and comments submitted to the site will be automatically emailed to several village officials, and assigned from there to the one most able to respond or help. Those filling out request forms will need to provide a name and email address, but there will be a section for anonymous comments and requests as well.

The new site will also allow residents to pay bills online, using their credit cards. However, there is a $2 charge for using the service. 

This is all wrapped up in a design that is intended to be easier to navigate and use. The main page includes drop-down menus within drop-down menus, and several different ways to access information. The site’s main graphic is a composite image of the Mill Street Bridge, an east side park and a west side subdivision.

“I can’t wait until it’s all put together and finalized and we can all access it,” said Village President Marilyn Michelini. “This is wonderful.”

“It’s very impressive,” said Trustee Bill Keck. “Someday when I get a computer at home, I’ll go in and use it,” he chuckled.

Residents will receive a flier touting the new website along with their village newsletter in the next round of water billing.