Hartford’s website is an inspiration to other local municipalities

The below story is from today’s (Sunday) Post Star newspaper. It speaks of the Town’s website that was redesigned under the leadership of Hartford Town Councilman Bob Dillon and his company Adirondack Strategic Marketing. Bob, working pro-bono due to his town position, created a collaboration with Orange Olive Design, IPress2000, and native Hartford photographer Charles Cornell to produce our revamped website. As you can see from the below story, Bob’s efforts have been gauged to be quite the success. Dana

SOUTH GLENS FALLS — Yet another village has been inspired by the town of Hartford.

South Glens Falls has hired the company that designed Hartford’s new website. Recently, Schuylerville officials also agreed to pay for a redesign that they said should be similar to Hartford’s site.

South Glens Falls Village Board members hope the website will begin to be improved within a week. They voted to hire Ipress 2000 of Queensbury.

The South Glens Falls site is rarely updated, with Village Board agendas sometimes not posted. Currently, the last agenda posted was for a July 12 Planning Board meeting, but the agenda is still on the main page of the website, more than a month later.

The latest Village Board minutes that appear on the site date back to March 15.

There’s also incorrect information on the site. Residents are still directed to call Brian Abare about Public Works emergencies or “information of any kind.” He resigned in May.

Ipress offered by far the cheapest of three proposals for a website redesign. It offered to design a better site for $1,500, with no cost for updates. The company also offered free training to village employees so they can update the site themselves. That will allow the village to post updates much more quickly, said board member Nick Bodkin.

Ipress will also charge the village an annual $475 for hosting, maintenance and the domain name.

Bodkin sought out proposals for a website redesign. But he abstained from the final vote because he uses Ipress for his business, Massage Works.

Officials have tried to work with the current website provider, North Country Computer, which is based in South Glens Falls. They’ve been trying to increase update speed for months.

“But our current provider is having health issues. That has limited our ability to keep things up to date,” Bodkin said.

North Country Computers proposed $3,000 to $4,000 for a redesign and $50 an hour for updates, such as posting agendas and minutes.

Mannix Marketing also put in a proposal, for a $7,350 redesign.

Board members preferred Ipress, particularly since they don’t have any money set aside in the budget for a website redesign.

“We obviously need to update our website big time, and I think this moves us in the right direction,” said board member Tony Girard.

The board agreed they would make their final payment to North Country Computers after Ipress takes over, so the website doesn’t suddenly disappear. It is located at sgfny.com.

You can reach Kathleen Moore at 742-3247 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @ByKathleenMoore or at her blog on www.poststar.com.