New town website development continues

WINSTED — The Board of Selectmen discussed the ongoing development of a new website for the town during its meeting on Monday, June 1.

In October, the board voted unanimously to hire Virtual Towns and Schools out of Maynard, Mass. to develop and maintain a new website.

The board chose the company out of seven bids.

At the time, Town Manager Dale Martin said that the company came up with the lowest bid: $5,995 for design and development and an annual $2,750 fee to maintain the website.

The website, which originally went online in 2001 and is located at www.townofwinchester.org, has not had a design change in over three years.

Director of Purchasing and Data Processing Mark Douglass spoke to the board during the meeting about the current status of the website.

Martin told the board that Douglass is leading the town’s efforts to update the website.

“Right now we plan to make it live by either the middle or the end of this month,” Douglass said. “The reason for the delay is because we have been trying to get input from all of the departments. We want to put the website up with as much information on there as possible.”

Douglass said that he has received complaints on the old website that it was hard to navigate.

“Back in March we started to migrate information to the new website,” Douglass said. “Like any other website, we need information from some boards and commissions. In May we met with department leaders and showed them the website. We can put more stuff on it to market the town. It has taken a lot longer than I would have liked.”

Martin said that the new website will be easier to navigate and will include more resources, including information on economic development and planning and zoning bylaws.

“It’s always going to be a work in progress,” Douglass added. “ I don’t want to keep it stagnant.”

During the citizen’s comments portion of the meeting, Winsted Republican Chairman Jerry Martinez said he was not impressed with Douglass’ work or the length of time it has taken to get the new website online.

“I have been in the IT [Information Technology] business for close to 26 years and that was the most pathetic description of trying to weasel out for not trying to complete a project,” Martinez said, directing his comments towards Douglass. “You have had more than three months to make this website. It’s a plug and play operation. You have the software. It’s here, so all you have to do is just add the documents, add the pictures, and you could have had a website.”

Selectman Steven Sedlak interrupted Martinez and asked him to “moderate your comments.”

“Address the chair,” Sedlak said. “Although we public servants are subject to criticize, our employees should be protected somewhat.”

“I will moderate them to point out the fact that this gentleman and other members of the town just received what amounts to a $200,000 increase in their salaries and benefits,” Martinez said. “I think most of the townspeople are frustrated with the fact that we don’t have a website. We pay for our taxes and the town cannot put up a simple website.”

Martinez went on to criticize the school district in his comments.

“From the school side, we are not getting squat,” he said. “We are getting institutionalized child abuse because the kids are on the bottom percentile of school [grades]. We are in the same percentiles as Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven.”