BELLOWS FALLS -- The town of Rockingham is finally going to revamp its website.
The town, which has fielded criticism about the flexibility of its website for several years, agreed to hire Munibit, a firm run by a Missouri father and son. The contract, for five years, was $9,540, or about $160 a month. The town will make a one-time payment, according to the agreement.
In particular, keeping the town website up to date with changing and new information, and an up-to-date calendar was a priority. Under the new website, residents will be able to sign up to receive emails and information about town meetings and agendas and supporting information for meetings.
Town Manager Scott Pickup said a committee of town employees, plus Select Board member Bonnie North, researched potential providers and recommended Munibit, which works extensively with municipalities, chambers of commerce and what it calls "Main Street" organizations. North said the committee looked at several companies before recommending Munibit.
North said the new website would allow for the "backend to be easily updated," and that content could be managed much more easily.
Munibit will redesign and update the town website, and will also include information about the town's two villages: Bellows Falls and Saxtons River. Pickup said the new contract will take effect Jan. 1.
Saxtons River resident Joel Love, himself a computer consultant, asked whether Munibit would host the town's website in the cloud or on its own computer servers, which would allow for redundancy.
The board approved the Munibit contract, pending clarification on whether its server would allow for redundancy of the website content.
According to the Munibit website, the firm was founded by Randy Schilling, who is chief executive officer. It is located in St. Charles, Missouri. Schilling was quoted as saying that Munibit provides a website platform for "small local government." The company said it provides ready made websites and doesn't charge for migration, or transferring the current content onto the new website. The web address will remain the same.