Farms adds new information to Web site

 

By K. Michelle Moran

C & G Staff Writer

     Grosse Pointe Farms hopes more of its residents go surfing — in order to visit the city’s Web site, that is.

     City leaders have been adding new information and more frequent updates to the site, which can be found at www.ci.grosse-pointe-farms.mi.us.

     At Farms City Hall, Assistant City Manager Matthew Tepper has been charged with making changes and updating the site. He’s been working with Farms City Council members Douglas Roby and Charles “Terry” Davis — members of the city’s technical committee — on how to improve the site and evaluate potential changes.

     The city has had a Web site for the last four or five years, but revamped it last year to make it more user-friendly. It’s a process officials are continuing now.

     Recent visitors may have seen council meeting agendas and minutes, a calendar of events, rubbish collection updates or presidential election results — which Tepper said were made available that night, after the city’s unofficial counts came in.

     “As a community communication device, it’s a great tool,” Tepper said. “And part of it is just getting people to check it regularly.”

     Roby said it’s a good way to keep residents informed. He thinks notices about big issues are especially important.

     “We should definitely have all of the information about the council meetings, because people want to know,” Roby said.

     Unless council members object, Roby would also like to see the addition of e-mail addresses and phone numbers of council members added to the site, as well as e-mail addresses for key city employees, to make it easier for residents to reach them with questions or concerns.

     “We’re anxious to improve it, anxious to reach out to our community,” Roby said.

     Tepper said another idea the city is considering is an e-mail alert list for contractors, so that they could be notified when the city was going to bid on a project or purchase.

     “Hopefully, it would be more effective in getting the word out,” said Tepper, who envisions the e-mail alerts in conjunction with advertisements — not as a replacement for them. “We do struggle to get as many [bidders] as possible.”

     Tepper’s using the site’s increased capability to create PDFs in order to put actual, formatted forms on the Web. Users can now download and print some park forms, building permits and assessment forms, and Tepper said he’s looking at adding public safety and court forms to the site.

     “We’re just looking at things people come into City Hall for,” Tepper said. “We want them to come into City Hall, but we realize everyone can’t. Obviously, convenience is important.”

     Officials are also looking at putting recodified ordinances into a PDF format so that they can be added to the site, too. An abridged version of some ordinances is currently available.

     “We just have to figure out how to organize it and make it simple to use, so people are not overwhelmed,” Tepper said.

     For Farms resident Henry Domzalski, the site made it easier for him to get an absentee ballot in time for the recent presidential election, since Domzalski is currently living in Tanzania.

     “I was able to get a quick reply from the person directly responsible [for sending out ballots],” Domzalski said via e-mail. “I was also able to browse some of the other on-line information relating to Grosse Pointe Farms.”

     In the end, though, Domzalski said “it was the human contact [with Matthew Tepper] which gave me the most confidence. He explained the procedure for dispatching absentee ballots and highlighted areas of potential delay. He confirmed when the ballots had been sent and was, altogether, excellent.”

     Which just goes to show that however sophisticated the technology becomes, sometimes residents still need to talk to an actual person.

     For questions or more information, visit the site at www.ci.grosse-pointe-farms.mi.us, or send an e-mail to cityclerk@grosse-pointe-farms.us or roby32@comcast.net.