CENTERVILLE—Centerville City is getting a new website. During a Dec. 16 work session, Administrative Services Director Bryce King gave the city council a look at the ongoing redesign of the website, which was slated to go live in late February (after this newspaper’s deadline).

The project involves a move to a new platform hosted by GHD, also known as Govstack – a provider currently used by other municipalities like Draper. 

“We have a lot more control of how we control content on the site compared to the other platform,” King said.

The new site will be organized under five primary headings: Living Here, Recreation and Culture, Emergencies and Public Safety, Business and Development, and Your Government.

“The idea for me is to kind of simplify the ‘report a concern’ [feature],” King told the council. “Right now, the report a concern is very generic. The idea now is to change that to say, ‘What concern do you have? Is it public works? Is it water? Is it streets?’ and then it will go to where it needs to go.”

Council members weren’t sure they loved the “Living Here” header. 

“Living here is just – it’s vague... I just want to know where my stuff is,” said Councilmember Gina Hirst who suggested a more direct label like “Resident Services.”

Councilmember Robyn Mecham also thought a “Contact Us” button placed prominently in the top right corner of the home page would be a good idea. 

“I personally would love to see [it] very prominently featured so I don’t have to drill down to try to figure out where to contact us,” she said.

Beyond a new look, the new platform offers advanced tools for targeted communication. King described a feature that would allow city staff to “geo-fence” specific neighborhoods to send localized alerts.

“If a water leak is happening in a neighborhood, not everybody and their dog needs to know about that,” he said. “The idea is to be able to just literally click on the houses and send the communication out to those residents through the software.”

The transition comes with a deadline, as the city’s current website contract was set to expire on Feb. 19. At that point King estimated the new site would launch around Feb 1. (He later told The City Journal the website would be ready towards the end of the month).

While city staff  has had to migrate and update content from the old site, King views the hurdle as an opportunity for a “clean up.”

“It’s going to be a pain, but also it’s going to be very beneficial,” he said. “Even though we have to rewrite and redo these pages, it’s really a good opportunity to clean up our pages, some things just don’t transfer over.”

The redesign will also feature a live social media feed on the homepage, allowing residents to see current updates without needing personal Facebook or Instagram accounts.

City council members seemed to react positively to the new website and its features. 

“It’s very inviting to me,” Councilmember Cheylynn Hayman said. “It feels more user friendly.”

King encouraged the council to share any feedback they receive from the public about the new site.