Community Corner

Southington Town Website Getting '21st Century Makeover'

In the digital age, Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback said technology is the key to communication with the public and better customer service and a new website to be unveiled on May 6 with provide the tools to enhance both.

After more than a decade of the same old look, there’s something new coming to a computer near you – a brand new town website designed to enhance usability and promote interaction with members of the community.

The Southington town website has undergone an extreme makeover and Town Manager Garry Brumback said the new and improved look will provide continued opportunities and growth as the community continues to move forward in establishing a “virtual town hall” to better address the needs of today’s residents.

“This is the cornerstone to everything we have been working on and are trying to accomplish,” Brumback said. “Having a robust, user-friendly website is essential and the ultimate goal is that one day residents will be able to conduct all their business online and only come to town hall if they want to. This is the tool that will get us there.”

The new website, which was created under the direction of Southington Town Clerk Leslie Cotton, will go live to the public on Monday, May 6. It will be available using the same address, www.southington.org, as the existing page.

Some of the biggest changes will include a move that brings the daily calendar and list of meetings and events right to the homepage, allow people to pay taxes or file certain documents with a single click and makes it easy for residents to receive email notifications for everything from weekly schedules to emergency responses.

And it can all be done right from the homepage.

“There were really two goals coming into this,” Cotton said. “The first was to enhance the look and make it more modern while providing something that would be easier for residents to use. The second was to make it easier to put things on the website so that other departments can take an active role as well.”

Cotton said the site will also include a more robust, Google-powered search feature and a “How Do I…” section to provide answers to common questions that residents have throughout the year.

There are a few other changes residents should be aware of as well, however. One thing that will change is the popular “Spirit of Southington” picture section, where residents have formerly been able to submit pictures each month with one being chosen for featuring on the homepage.

Instead, the town will now use the Southington Town Hall Facebook page to enhance this program and provide more opportunities for all pictures to be featured, Cotton said.

Brumback said with the work in the past year, the new site will allow the town to begin addressing even more complicated opportunities such as opening the site for people to research and track building and planning permits, apply for licenses and even pay their taxes or search tax records without ever needing to leave the comfort of their home.

“We’ve come a long way already and this site will help us continue to work toward reaching that goal,” Brumback said.

Be sure to check out the brand new website when it goes live on May 6.

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