City of Kalispell debuts website redesign

In a bid to keep up with the times, the city of Kalispell has revamped its website.

The redesigned website, which went live last week, has been in the works for nearly two years, the city’s Information Technology Director Erika Billiet said. The goal was to create a website that was friendly for mobile devices and more easily navigable. The new website is easy for staff across all city departments to update in-house to ensure information remains current, Billiet said.

“We’ve received some good feedback so far, and we are taking the feedback and making some modifications as we need to,” Billiet said.

Last September the city began to work in earnest with the contractor it selected on the new site, Kansas-based CivicPlus.

The city signed a three-year agreement with the firm at a cost of $14,523 annually. The first year runs from September 2017 to September of this year.

The first three annual payments also include an update that will come in year three, and an option to purchase additional services to add to the website, a la carte, for an additional fee.

Billiet said the city was working on a package that would allow residents to report the precise locations of potholes and other items the city should address. The add-on, called a request tracker, would cost an additional $200 per year in payment to CivicPlus. Billiet hopes it will be online by this summer.

The contract also included several training sessions for city staff. Staff members who participated received nine hours of training.

People with questions about where to find information on the new website should contact the relevant city department, Billiet said, and general inquiries can be directed to City Clerk Aimee Brunckhorst.

The city website can be accessed at www.kalispell.com.

Reporter Peregrine Frissell can be reached at (406) 758-4438 or pfrissell@dailyinterlake.com.