FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The city launched a redesigned Web site last week, and for the first time will be managing the site itself, instead of contracting it out to a third party, said Sherry Sullivan, director of senior services.

“Our goal was to better organize the site and make it easier to navigate, while adding a few things folks had been asking for,” Sullivan said. “I know it will only grow and get better. The site is a work in progress, and this is a great stepping stone.”

Some of the new information includes city government committee assignments, an organizational chart and additional financial records, such as the most recent audit of the city’s books, and a monthly update of the general fund.

“We’ve been talking about developing a new site for years,” said Mo Herndon Ray, owner of Herndon’s Marketing Design, which had the contract to redesign the new site and had also managed the old site. “I’m very excited about it. It has a fresh, clean look. It’s a much improved Web site for visitors and local residents to use.”

The new site enables better administrative access to city staff for adding certain information, Sullivan said, such as City Council minutes, public meeting and bid notices, special events, golf tournaments and monthly financial statements.

“Before, I had to send most of this to Herndon’s to post, so it was not timely or cost-effective,” Sullivan said. “Also, we never had a technical staff (person) who knew about a Web site. With Jason (Colee, information technology director), he knows the majority of the technical (side) and hopes to add staff once the hiring freeze is lifted, who can help manage the site, so we will have more control and can make the site more interactive.”

According to an article in the city’s spring newsletter, the new Web site will also offer online bill paying in the future. The site now provides a number of forms that can be downloaded for various city permits and other applications, as did the old Web site.

“We’ll be adding more of these (services) as we go,” Colee said in City Sketches, the city’s newsletter. “It will evolve to where people can download a form and fill it out to bring in or even e-mail it to us. That streamlines the process for everyone involved.”

The total cost of the project to redesign the site was $20,000 and was paid over 18 months in $5,000 installments, with the last payment made to HMD in March, Sullivan said.

“After this month, we plan to bring everything in-house, and Jason will take care of most everything,” Sullivan said. “If we have to go outside, it will be on a limited basis.”

Sullivan said the city had paid HMD $300 a month for the past five years or so to manage the old site, and will save that cost each month by managing the site itself.

“I collected the information and Dogwood Productions did the technical side,” Ray said, referring to how the new site was developed. HMD also developed the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce’s Web site with the assistance of Dogwood Productions in Mobile, according to an ESCC newsletter.

Last year, the city added a link to the city’s set of ordinances, which remains on the new site, as does much of the information from the old site, such as a copy of the comprehensive plan, and other publications.

The new site does not include a copy of the council packet handed out to council members for each meeting, as the city Web site for Daphne does, nor does it include some organizational information for city bodies, such as the bylaws and articles of incorporation for the Planning and Zoning Commission, Fairhope Airport Authority and Industrial Development Board.

Adding that kind of information to a Web site reduces the need to copy large and often voluminous amounts of information for council meetings and in response to public information requests, according to city staff.

“Our old Web site was like a house that had been added onto too many times,” said Mayor Tim Kant in the current City Sketches newsletter. “The information was there, but there were too many layers. It had grown too busy to be really useful information. (Sherry and Jason), with the help of others, have created a new site that is clean, simple and much easier to use.”

The Web site is located at www.cofairhope.com. For more information, call 928-2136 or e-mail webmaster@cofairhope.com.