Community Corner

Township Website Redesign Expected Soon

Cinnaminson Township Committee plans to vote on the contract at its Monday meeting.

Cinnaminson's municipal website is about to get a face-lift. 

Committee will vote Monday to award a contract to a local company to perform a redesign of the township website, according to administrator Frank Locantore. 

He said the company would make a presentation at Monday's committee meeting, providing some examples of what the refurbished website would look like.

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Locantore said his primary goals with the redesign are to improve the appearance and ease of use, ensure the information on the site is up-to-date, and to make the site more interactive for residents.

The township's timing couldn't be better. A recent study by Monmouth University into the effectiveness of municipal websites ranked Cinnaminson near the very bottom, coming in at 517 out of the 540 sites evaluated in the study, which ranked the sites based on three primary criteria: ease of use, content and citizen interaction.

Find out what's happening in Cinnaminsonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In the areas of ease of use and content, Cinnaminson's scores were well below the state averages of 41.4 and 37.3, respectively. Cinnaminson had an ease of use score of 13.6 and a content score of 23.5.

(Check out the attached PDF to see the full results of the Monmouth University study, including how the scores were determined.)

The Monmouth study emphasized the importance of municipal websites by pointing to a 2011 poll that showed the Internet is the first place most New Jerseyans turn for information about their community: nearly six in 10 said they've looked up information about their town online—about the same number who said they've paid a visit to their municipality's town hall. And residents are also far more likely to visit a municipal website than call or write a town official, the report stated.

However, Locantore emphasized that the township needs multiple methods of reaching residents, even those who aren't plugged in.

"There's a good number of senior citizens who do not have a computer," he added, "so we need to make sure to develop methods to notify them as well."

The township did not have to bid the website redesign since the cost didn't reach the $17,500 bid threshold, said Locantore. "This should not have a significant impact on the budget."

Since committee has not voted to award the contract yet, Locantore did not divulge the name of the company or the amount of the contract.

Township committee will meet at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the mayor's conference room at the municipal building.


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