There’s a new sight to see in Evesham, a website that is, as the township has officially unveiled its redesigned website.
Township manager Tom Czerniecki said the site redesign was the result of a direction from the Evesham Township Council earlier in the year to update the website to make it more functional and efficient for use by residents.
“We searched those states that actually gave awards to their municipalities for great municipal websites, and we honed into two towns that approximated to our size and complexity, and we tried to pull out the features that we thought worked best,” Czerniecki said.
A new and major feature of the redesigned website, www.evesham-nj.org, is the addition of a constant feed on the homepage featuring updates from the township’s Facebook page.
Czerniecki said as the technology grew over the past few years, it became inefficient to put information on Facebook and then take that information, create a PDF and put it on the township website.
As such, Czerniecki said the township wasn’t keeping up with putting information and press releases on the website, and in turn the public stopped relying on it for information.
Czerniecki said the constant Facebook feed on the website also solves the problem of residents who say they can’t access Facebook or those reluctant to create an account.
“Under the new design, everything we put on Facebook is automatically fed on the right side of our website, so you don’t need to create an account but you can see everything we post.”
In the center of the homepage are “buttons” linking to features of the site Czerniecki said the township thinks residents would most frequently like to access.
“In the past, you would have to first understand what department you wanted to go to, then go see if that department allowed you to do that, so we put that up front and center,” Czerniecki said.
The nine buttons include online payments, road projects, pending ordinances, bid notices, agendas and minutes for meetings, budget reports, audit reports, township maps and employment opportunities.
According to Czerniecki, the employment page not only lists job openings from the township, but also has links to the human resources pages for the Municipal Utilities Authority, fire district and school district.
Czerniecki said the website also now features a “How Do I?” section that takes the most popular “How do I?” questions each department gets and answers them.
“Not everybody understands the clerk’s office, for example, is where you go to register your animals,” Czerniecki said.
Also redone is the website’s search engine, which Czerniecki described as “hit or miss” in the past, but much more aggressive now, able to find more forms and data.
Czerniecki said the township’s event calendar was also redesigned to be more dynamic and up to date, as the previous calendar was so complex and comprehensive the township wasn’t using it much.
The new calendar also saves the township about $6,000 per year as it no longer must pay for the older calendar service, savings Czerniecki credits to Lisa Ott, the township management information systems director.
Czerniecki also credited Ott for redesigning the website herself, thereby costing the township no additional money.
Finally, Czerniecki said the new website allows the township to bring in pictures on the homepage that will “sell Evesham symbolically” such as pictures of the Diamonds at Arrowhead Sports Complex, Taste of Evesham or Fourth of July events.
“It’s really important to try and convey, initially, a lifestyle,” Czerniecki said. “A website is a marketing tool for your community and people considering moving into the town or locating their businesses here.”
