Melita revamps official town website

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/03/2020 (2263 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In an effort to increase transparency and better inform the public, Melita town officials launched their new website on Feb. 28 — the first time such a major update has taken place in approximately five years.

Mere hours after melitamb.ca went live, Mayor Bill Holden said in a press release that the town’s goal with this new website was to provide residents and visitors with a simple way to discover more about the community’s various programs and services.

“We hope they will find it easier to navigate and find what they’re looking for quickly and efficiently,” he said in the release.

Talking to the Sun on March 3, chief financial officer Breigh Crepeele said the old website contained very little information about things like bylaws, policies and town council minutes, which meant residents were forced to seek those documents out in person at the municipal government office.

“Now, when people call in we’ll be able to direct them to the website and tell them where the bylaw section is, instead of pulling the documents out and printing them off and having residents come in,” she said. “Everyone can read all that kind of content from the comfort of their own home.”

In terms of design and layout, former economic development officer Iris Vercaigne said it was important to make sure this new website was as streamlined as possible.

For this reason, she enlisted the help of All-Net Municipal Solutions, since these developers have provided similar website redesigns for Westman communities like Municipality of Pembina, Rossburn Municipality and Municipality of Grassland.

“One of our main goals, really, is to make sure the user finds information in about one or two clicks,” Vercaigne said. “So I think the new website is able to deliver that.”

Melita’s nine-month collaboration with All-Net also meant that this new website is better optimized for social media integration and mobile devices, which makes sharing information about local businesses, tourist destinations and garbage pickup that much easier.

In the coming months, Crepeele said the town will be busy adding more information to its “government” and “business” sections, as well as setting up some auxiliary websites that can help shine a light on various service clubs and non-profit organizations.

“Our next step is to get those non-profit organizations their own voice and their own microsite so that they can get their information out there as well,” she said.

While Vercaigne doesn’t work for the town anymore, she was really happy with how the website redesign turned out and is looking forward to seeing where the town takes it in the future.

Melita is located approximately 130 kilometres southwest of Brandon and has a population of just greater than 1,000 people.

 

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson