Wellington North council approves website upgrades

WELLINGTON NORTH – Council here has directed staff to enter into a contract with Upanup Studios Inc. in order to upgrade the township’s website.

The move is an effort to make the website more user-friendly and interactive. Costs associated with the website “refresh” will be funded from the provincial Municipal Modernization Program.

A report from township staff notes the township’s website is the primary point of resident access to township information and services, yet a review of the current website yields outdated information posted and a lack of conformity across pages.

A website redesign and refresh were identified as a major project in 2021. After seeking quotes from three vendors, it was determined that the Upanup custom design for the website would be the least expensive for the township over a seven-year period.

The contract with Upanup studios will cost $59,600 in the first year, and $74,000 over seven years.

Website features offered by Upanup include:

• ability to fill out and submit forms online;
• uploading and downloading documents;
• integrating video content and photos;
• ability to keep the public informed of upcoming meetings, public hearings, and township-organized events with a calendar feature;
• ability to subscribe to various distribution lists and updates through email; and
• incorporation of social media.

Councillor Sherry Burke raised concerns over why e-commerce was not going to be part of the website refresh.

“Not that I’m that tech-savvy, but it doesn’t look like we’re including e-commerce, and I’m just wondering why,” Burke said.

“Are we going to look at this once the website is up and running? Because I think that’s probably one of the number one questions that we get. I think if we’ve learned anything through the pandemic it is that every business should have e-commerce.”

Community recreation coordinator Mandy Jones said the township did look at e-commerce as part of its discovery phase.

“E-commerce is something that can be offered through a third party as well,” Jones said.

“We would want to explore different fees that we could apply e-commerce payment to in the website project, but we didn’t want to do that right off the bat.”