WESTLOCK – Westlock County’s long-anticipated new website is slated to go live April 13 with councillors saying what they’ve seen so far is “impressive” and “easy to navigate.”
Councillors and administration got a sneak peek at the site during a 25-minute presentation from Jill Yanch at their March 17 governance and priorities meeting — Yanch is currently under contract to provide communications services to the municipality. The site will cost ratepayers $5,475 and was built by All-Net Municipal Solutions, a Winnipeg-based company.
“It’s really a continual process of improving ourselves and responding to residents’ feedback … if they’re having trouble finding information, or if there are comments, etc, we’ll continue monitoring it to improve the website so it’s the best possible vehicle for council and the county. I’m excited,” said interim CAO Pat Vincent, who said the county had initially hoped to get the new site up by the end of 2021.
“It is a good-looking site and it will be much easier to navigate. I was talking to staff this morning and the current site is probably 15 years old … I couldn’t believe it, I thought maybe 10. But as technology improves, people want to access information differently.”
Yanch, who along with two county staffers have been trained to do regular site updates, said the new version will offer, “a lot of different features that we can stay on top of to make sure it is digestible to the public.” While the site will be live mid-April, Yanch said they’ll continue to fine tune it following.
“It’s much more user friendly. The current site is really limited with how we can interact with the platform. This one will have a lot of different features that we can stay on top of to make sure it is digestible to the public,” she said. “It’ll be a continually evolving thing.”
The week before launch the county will begin advertising the new site, then ramp up their efforts the week of. Following, they’ll continue to promote it via social media with a contest, as well as a series of web videos that’ll show different sections and where to find key items.
Following the demo, Coun. Jared Stitsen said he was impressed, noting talk of a new website began during his first term four years ago. Yanch noted the site, which also has a search feature, will allow for more “visual cues” and make things like a submitting a service request or finding bylaws and polices much simpler.
“I think this is going to be wonderful for our residents and our communities … even for people wanting to move to Westlock County this is a really great thing. It’s user friendly,” said reeve Christine Wiese, calling the current site “painful” to navigate.
“It’s impressive and I can’t wait to get on it and use it,” added Stitsen.
