Darien Set To Roll Out New And Improved Town Website

DARIEN, CT — At long last, Darien is set to roll out its new and improved town website.

Town Administrator Kate Buch on Monday night gave the Board of Selectmen a brief overview of the new site, which will debut on Tuesday, Sept. 26.

"One of the reasons we undertook this, aside from the website being a little bit older, our website is not ADA-compliant," Buch explained. "A lot of our employees were having trouble maneuvering, and we were trying to make it easier for the residents. One of the important things we looked at was trying to keep things to three clicks."

A Request for Proposal went out for the website work in November 2022, and the project was awarded to CivicPlus in February of this year.

Overall, the fee for the website redesign, employee training and data conversion and migration was just over $26,000, Buch told Patch.

CivicPlus included features so people who have vision issues can easily navigate through links and web pages, Buch said. Machines that use screen readers can differentiate between the heading of a page and a subheading, and hyperlinks are descriptive, Buch said. Photos also have alternate text that explain what's being depicted.

The new website will also allow residents to sign up for notifications so they know when a particular town body has posted new agenda materials or other items.

Additionally, the redesign has changed the town's citizen alert system. Darien will now use SeeClickFix, a platform that can be accessed through a phone app.

The platform, which Buch said is her favorite aspect of the redesign project, will enable residents to access important town information, and also report and submit things like potholes on town roads so the Department of Public Works knows about them.

Colors from the town of Darien logo were used to create the look and feel of the site, Buch noted.

"We've been working hard on this. I want to thank all the employees who went through a lot of training over the past week learning how to edit their pages," Buch said. "I'm excited, and I hope the citizens will like it when they see it."