New Village Website Connects Social Media, Government, Residents

has launched a new website in an effort to streamline everything from frequently asked questions, to social media, forms and how-to videos.

The new version launched at noon on Monday. Village Manager Andy Pederson said the new site is much more convenient for people to report concerns such as potholes and garbage that may have been missed or find forms and get questions answered.

"Our old site was good, but we've outgrown the life of it because the website is being used so much," Pederson said. "We had about 101,000 page views last year."

But the upgrade isn't just to handle more page views, it's about connecting in every way possible. Pederson said the new site also has a mobile version, which means if you have a smart phone, the site will load more quickly because it's built for the smaller screen. They've also added a bar across the middle of the top of the page that has links to all the social media.

"People are using it so much and between Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube ... we have an iPhone app as well," Pederson said.

The new site even allows users to sign up for particular notifications they're interested in, such as Amber Alerts, community events, road closings or construction. Those notifications can come either by e-mail or text message, and Pederson said these are key.

"Text messaging will be a big part of it, adapting to the younger generation who text message more prevalently, you can get updates more frequently," he said.

And even before the site was updated, the number of users continued to grow.

"We're still seeing our numbers increasing," he said. "Our numbers were up 12 percent from last year. We call it the Virtual Village Hall.

"It's the quality, not the quantity of information. There's only so much people can absorb. We're really excited about it. It's going to be a great tool to communicate with people."

Here are a few of the new features:

• Notify Me: Text message and e-mail alert sign up.
• A new iPhone and iPad app that allows users to report village problems like potholes.
• Mobile version of the website.
• Photo gallery.
• Business directory.
• How do I section, answering questions like how to pay taxes and report potholes.

"We're trying to build for the future," Pederson said.