MORGANTOWN — To go along with a myriad of moves, renovations and remodels of the various county offices in the Monongalia County Courthouse, the county has also overhauled its digital presence.
The Monongalia County Commission switched over to its new website on Monday. The site remains at co.monongalia.wv.us/
“The old site was more of just a repository. It met its purpose of distributing information, but the new site is a lot more clean. It’s also mobile-ready, so it will work on your phone the same way it will work on your desktop,” Commissioner Sean Sikora said.
“It’s set up to really be a one-stop site, with links to the different departments, but it’s still a work in progress right now.”
The county contracted with Flint, Michigan-based Revize near the end of 2017 at a base cost of $8,300, plus $1,800 per year for hosting and maintenance services.
As part of the agreement, the site will receive a redesign every four years.
Sikora said the new site is more in line with what people expect when searching for information online.
“With this site, the average person who’s used to going and looking for information on a website can intuitively know where to go,” he said. “It’s just more modern.”
One of the features yet to be added is a link to the county’s OpenGov site — monongaliacountywv.opengov.com — which is a localized version of the wvcheckbook.gov site spearheaded by West Virginia Auditor JB McCuskey.
The sites are an effort to put details of government spending online, providing a searchable, real-time accounting of expenditures. Monongalia County was the first in the state to launch a county version in August.
The county’s OpenGov site is currently being upgraded to make it easier to navigate and understand.
In the meantime, Sikora said the new county website is up and running and he’s looking forward to hearing what people think about it.
“I would just invite people to check it out and report any feedback on the kinds of things that are important to them,” he said.
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