Town hires website designer

NORTH EAST — The Town Board agreed to follow the advice of town Supervisor Dave Sherman, who a number of months ago recommended the town hire JTWeb Services to design a municipal website. The Ancram-based business offered to build the site for a cost of $1,000 to $1,500. At that time, the majority of the board wanted to hear from other web designers, including Fisch Internet Solutions out of Fishkill. Fisch gave a bid of $3,000 to do the work requested by the town.By the Oct. 13 meeting, Sherman raised the issue once more, with a recommendation from Village Board member Yosh Schulman in hand. Schulman designed the village of Millerton’s website, along with volunteer Steven Williams. The Town Board had agreed it would seek Schulman’s advice on the matter.In Schulman’s emailed letter to Sherman, he stated that if the town was going to spend $3,000, he would recommend an outfit named MadWireMedia, from Colorado. Barring that, he said that “JTWeb looks like a great option.”At last week’s meeting, Councilman Tim Shafer asked what the issue was with the first vendor’s presentation (that first vendor being JTWeb Services); Councilman Carl Stahovec echoed his sentiment.Stahovec then moved to hire JTWeb Services, with Shafer seconding the motion. The rest of the board approved the motion, which passed, and the proposal set forth to accept JTWeb Services’ bid. The next step will be for Attorney to the Town Warren Replansky to draw up a formal proposal between the town and the vendor.JTWeb’s James Thompson proposal included managing the content through WordPress, which he said would help edit the information more easily and in a more timely and self-sufficient manner. There would also be provisions made for security.He added he can provide 24/7 support, although it’s not mandatory the town use his service for that support. His hosting fee is roughly $100 annually, plus an hourly fee, and he said that covers “anything that you require from me on an hourly basis.” In terms of time, at the initial presentation, Thompson said once he gets the content, he can pull the project together in a couple of weeks. The town is hoping to get the website up within a 90-day period.

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