Great Barrington — If it’s town business you have, you might not need to trek to Town Hall to do it.
Such is the result of months of work to the town’s website by site update manager Karen W. Smith, Jennifer Bailly, Administrative Assistant to the Town Manager, and staff interns and Selectboard member Bill Cooke. One can now simply click on site links to apply for permits, pay for things like marriage and dog licenses and landfill stickers, or pay property taxes. Town information is now clear and easy to find, and one can sign up for email delivery of specific meeting agendas or minutes for the various boards or committees. Also, archived documents can now be accessed online.
You can even send a complaint through the site and the right person, from the right department, will get it.
A “How Do I” link explains how to find town information using the site.
“This will reduce the need to call Town Hall for everything,” Smith added. “You can get the answer to something you need anytime of day, because if you think of something at 8 o’clock at night, Town Hall isn’t open.”
The town website will still feature a calendar on the home page for meetings and events, but it has added the The Berkshire Edge’s interactive county event calendar to which people can post events in various categories at any time, as well as view listings of many hundreds of items, from activities at town libraries to performances at the Mahaiwe, Tanglewood, and cultural and educational venues throughout the county.
If one is starting a business here, the “Business” link will connect to a list of town contacts like the Building Inspector. Links to local online news sources, including The Edge, will be listed, as well as a list of things to do in the Berkshires, job and volunteer opportunities, and all town-related Facebook pages.
“This will be more user friendly for the citizenry so they can take care of town business,” Smith said. “The most important thing is that people go to the CodeRED Community Notification Enrollment link and register. It doesn’t make any difference if you registered last time. This is a brand new system.”
CodeRED is the town’s new reverse 911 alert system that provides emergency notifications by phone, text, email and social media. The town contracted with an Ormond Beach, Florida-based company for the high-speed service.
Learn how the CodeRED Emergency Notification system works.
“CodeRED’s robust system will provide us with a reliable, easy-to-use interface to quickly disseminate critical information to our citizens during emergencies,” said Fire Chief Charles Burger. “We are very eager to use this technology to enhance our emergency preparedness plans.”
Smith said town officials anticipate using the system to notify residents, in specific geographic locations, of fires, floods, water emergencies and missing children notices. It also can be used for important town wide notices.
Any suggestions, concerns or issues about the website can be directed to Smith at ksmith@townofgb.org.
