Fulton officials are hoping a recent upgrade to the city's Web site will make it more informative and easier for residents to navigate.
The new site, which has been in the works for several months, went live on Dec. 15. Assistant Director of Administration Matt Harline said the new page has a number of much-needed improvements.
"The site is going to allow citizens to learn more about city government, and there is more for people who might be looking to move to Fulton," Harline said. "There's more information, and it's easier to update."
That last improvement, in fact, was the inspiration for the change.
"The other site was designed so you had to know html language to update it, so we had to have a specially-trained person," Harline said. "When that person would leave we would lose track of how to update the site. From our end, we wanted it to be much easier to update."
According to Harline, the new site - which he said looks more modern than the previous "dated" version - "has all the features it had before, and more."
In addition to information about city government, various departments and services, and city parks and facilities, visitors to www.gofultonmissouri.com now can also sign up to receive e-mails with the Fulton Newsletter and report street light outages.
Other new features include a frequently-asked questions section, events calendar and a button leading to the "Once You Know ... Fulton, Missouri" tourism site.
"We're working out a few kinks. One thing we would like to put on there in the future is the ability for residents to pay their utility bills online; we just have to figure out the policy for that," Harline said. "We also want to add a feature where vendors (such as contractors) with something to sell to the city can register online and we would automatically send them a Request for Proposals."
The city's department heads worked with Vision Works in Fulton to create the site. Vision Works also helped build the "Once You Know ... Fulton, Missouri" site. The combined cost for those projects was a little more than $4,000.