Town Meeting Approves New Town Web Site and Network Assessment Articles

Burlington Town Meeting met for the first session of the January Town Meeting last night. The members made it through more than half of the 26 warrant articles in the booklet, and two of those warrants pertained to upgrades in technology in town.

Town Meeting voted to approve a $15,000 expenditure to fund the development and implementation of a new town web site and $75,000 to assess the town's current IT system and develop a strategic plan for a short and long term modernization of the town's technology infrastructure.

Brad Bond, Chairman of the Ways & Means Committee, said the committee supported the both of the articles. On the new web site, he said changes in technology, both hardware and software, have made it necessary to upgrade.

"Technology always moves ahead, and this article is talking about pushing the abilities of site to include modern conveniences," he said.

Town Clerk Amy Warfield, who oversees the web site, said there is a big need for an upgrade. She said the current site has a "2000's feel,"does not have a user-friendly layout, is difficult for users and is out of date.

"There are some features used on a lot of web sites we cannot do because we don’t have the capability in software or hardware including web forums, questionnaires, and social media connections," she said. "We also lack the ability to get information out in quickly during emergencies."

"In general people have nice comments on our site, but they also say they have difficulty finding the information they need," Warfield said.

Warfield said the new design would address these issues and offer users, some of which are from around the world and use the site as a first impression of Burlington, a more user-friendly experience.

She said the new site would also make it easier for the town to connect the different departments' sites for better coordination of information.

Gerald Beuchelt of Burlington Information Systems Advisory Committee (ISAC) spoke on the need for the $75,000 allotment for a complete network assessment. First, he said, this assessment will tackle all town and school departments, rather than doing each piecemeal, for an overreaching and coordinated update.

"What we are asking for tonight are funds to get a professional consultant to do an inventory of all our assets, both hardware, operating processes, software, and to ensure are we following the best practices," Beuchelt said. "We could try and do this ourselves, but that wouldn't be prudent. With this plan we will involve all boards, departments and committees."

Beuchelt said the assessment would help the town establish the status of the current system, develop mid-term and long-term strategies to modernize the infrastructure and will help with initatives for more up-to-date information technology services, such as online tax and fee payments.

Finally, Beuchelt said the assessment would help the town update its security software for a more secure system.

The timeline for the assessment is that the town will put out a request for proposals in February and will hire a company to work through the summer. Beuchelt said the results would be pulled together and information from the results will be ready for the September Town Meeting. 

The Burlington Town Meeting will reconvene on Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the Burlington High School auditorium.