Village Poised to Spend $11,000 on Website Revamp

trustees on Wednesday all but gave their consent to a proposal to spend $11,000 revamping the village’s website.

The current website was created in 2003 and paid for with a Kane County Small Cities grant. The 2012 budget currently sets aside $2,000 for upgrades, some of which are mandated by the state, to meet new Freedom of Information Act requirements.

But at Wednesday’s meeting of the Finance Committee (consisting of the entire Village Board), Village Manager Anne Marie Gaura proposed a different alternative. The website is out of date, she said, and could use a complete makeover, especially considering it is, increasingly, the way the village government communicates with residents.

“We’ve had a positive response since we’ve gone online,” she said. “We add friends every day on our Facebook page."

Montgomery launched its Facebook page in November, and it currently sports 216 fans. Gaura has said it is the first step in a longterm social media rollout for the village, and the revamped website is part of that plan.

The new site would include not only the state-required document storage and archive system, but an electronic bill payment function that would let residents pay their water bills online, a “citizen request tracker” that would give residents a way to ask questions or log complaints, an interactive calendar of events, and downloadable forms such as permit and job applications.

It also would allow the village to more thoroughly integrate social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, with the website, Gaura said.

Village staff shopped the proposal around and came back with an estimated cost of $11,000, Gaura said. To afford this, the general fund budget would be scaled back by $9,000. Certain projects—including replacing a cash register in the village hall—would be eliminated, and a plan to spend $28,000 to replace computers throughout village government would be reduced by $2,800.

Whether the Village Board decides to spend $2,000 or $11,000 on the website, the 2012 budget will be a balanced one, according to Finance Manager Jeff Zoephel. The difference would be in net income: The first option would leave the village with $2,990, the second $290. (This does not count the 26 percent general fund balance, which will remain untouched.)

That figure worried Trustee Rob Watermann, who challenged staff to find new places to cut. But every trustee pledged support for the proposal Wednesday night. Trustee Bill Keck said if the new website allows the village to streamline the FOIA process, it would be more than a wash. And Trustee Jeanne Felten said the current website is difficult to navigate and improvements are needed.

“I think we should go forward with it,” said Village President Marilyn Michelini. “I think it’s important.”

One more discussion on the 2012 budget is planned for the Village Board meeting on March 14. A public hearing on the budget will be on March 25, and trustees are slated to vote on the $8.8 million spending plan on April 11.