County website has new look, new features

“The goal was to give it a fresh look, make it more interactive, while maintaining an easy navigation system,” said county technology director Gary Venable.

Venable said BOC chairman Anthony Dove requested the redesign when he first took office and gave instructions to Athensguys.com, which designed the new site.

Venable said the biggest difference is cosmetic. The site has a different color scheme and the “menu/navigation system now includes drop-downs at the top instead of using plain text along the sides.”

“We also used stats for the most visited sections of the site and attempted to place those links and information prominently up front,” said Venable.

There is a new “upcoming events” feature that rotates on the home page, allowing people to see meeting schedules at a quick glance.

“That could be expanded to include other events of the county as the site grows,” said Venable.

There is also a “Notify Me” section allowing people to join a mailing list for county updates.

“It is not fully tested yet, but we would like to use it for things like road work/closings, recreation schedules, and numerous other ideas to help keep people informed,” said Venable.

The new site is more user friendly for potential visitors to the county.

“Weather is on the front page along with scrolling pictures (which can be easily updated to include new photos) and there is also a ‘Visitors’ drop-down as well,” said Venable. “Currently, it only includes FAQs and the legal disclaimer, but the plan is to eventually include information about attractions, businesses, schools, etc in the county.”

While the county website has a new look, old features remain.

“Departments still have an individual login so they can update their pages accordingly, and all of the ‘old’ features such as parcel assessment lookups, property tax payments, agendas/minutes, videos of the BOC meetings, etc. are still in place,” said Venable.