The Marion County Board voted Tuesday night to start over on developing a website and agreed to expand it to be a portal to access individual county offices.
After dismissing its first web developer, the board entered into a $2,785 contract with Serpentine Website Design of Carlyle to construct a site that will follow the design of the Clinton County website which board members agreed was the best they had seen.
Owner Cheryl Roberts outlined a five-week plan to bring the website online. After four weeks of development, she will provide a week of training. For county offices without a website or who want to replace their current sites, Roberts has agreed to build out a site within the county board site for just a few hundred dollars apiece.
Board Vice-Chair Dr. Creighton Engel says the website will be the place to go for those needing information on county government.
“Board members, their term, when they are up for re-election, the district they are in, the email address accessible to the public, dates, and agendas for meetings and archived. We are also going to include links to elected officials for any who want to have their own website. He says this will act like a portal to get people there.”
Engel says the board is still looking towards live video broadcast of county board meetings that would also be offered through the website.
After the first-year cost, the county will pay $225 a year for hosting in future years.
