Thursday, March 15, 2012
By Ann Wishart
A presentation on the redesign of Russell Township's website led to discussion about its potential and limitations during trustees' March 7 meeting.
WRIS Web Services consultant Jim Abbott and company president Charlie Meyers evaluated the site the township is now using and described it as difficult to use, hard to update and not fully optimized.
It could be more of a communication tool as well as a better online presence for non-residents curious about the township, Abbott said.
Some Northeast Ohio governmental entities have worked with WRIS to design their websites and to tie them into social media such as Facebook and Twitter to better connect with the public, Abbott said.
"It's all about communication," he added.
The current content on the township website is good and residents can find various township forms online, but Abbott said it is not user-friendly or fresh looking.
Melissa Palmer, assistant to the township trustees, said the website was launched in the mid-to-late-1990s.
Abbott said state funds could be available to help build a regional website that would include several adjacent communities.
Each town-ship or village would have its own page where information about upcoming events could be published, he explained.
Trustee Jim Dickinson said he sees a township website as more restricted in its scope and should include only news and information related to the township government, such as the repaving of roads.
There is a difference between a community website and a government website, he said.
Trustee Jim Mueller said a website could be used to create synergies among the communities in the Chagrin Valley.
Residents could learn about such things as cultural activities and when to sign up for swimming lessons or little league through the website, he added.
Both trustees referred to the Chagrin Valley Intergovernmental Council, which is comprised of member communities Bainbridge, Bentleyville, Chagrin Falls Village and township, Gates Mills, Hunting Valley, Moreland Hills, Orange Village, Pepper Pike, Russell, Solon, South Russell and Woodmere.
"A purely governmental website would be like eating sand," Mueller said. "That's not exciting."
Abbott was originally contacted by Trustee Justin Madden, who said his purpose was to find out what could be done with a new website and if any funds were available to implement those changes.
Trustees asked Abbott to provide a proposal with some social media interface.
"We're tiptoeing into the waters," said Mueller.
In other business, trustees welcomed Michael McIvor as a part-time officer on the Russell Township Police Department.
Trustees also agreed to send a letter of support to The Chesler Group to submit to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, recommending the ASM International headquarters on Kinsman Road be considered a historic place.
The complex includes a modernist building at the base of the dome, designed by Cleveland architect John Terence Kelly, that houses the offices of ASM, a global clearinghouse for technical information on the science of materials.
It was built in 1959 after William Hunt Eisenman, the organization's director from 1918 to 1958, donated 100 acres of land for the headquarters.
ASM subsequently bought hundreds of acres of surrounding land, which it later sold to the Geauga Park District.
Today, that acreage is known as The West Woods.
In late 2009, ASM was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a designation that helped it qualify for $2.4 million in federal and state historic-preservation tax credits.
The credits helped pay for a $6 million renovation done by The Chesler Group, a Cleveland company specializing in renovation of historic buildings.
"It's a unique building, a national landmark," Mueller said. "I think we, in Russell, tend to overlook it."
The website WRIS developed for Beachwood Schools was launched in February of 2009 after several months of careful planning and programming. Located in an east side suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, The Beachwood City School District has approximately 1,600 students enrolled in four separate school buildings. In an effort to streamline communication, the newly designed website includes updateable news and announcements on the home page and a powerful school-wide calendar sortable by school campus and category. All of the site's content, including photographs, is updateable through a password-protected Content Manager managed entirely by school staff. The mission of the new Beachwood Schools website is to make it easy for prospective families to gather information about the school district, and provide valuable information to existing members of the school community including students, parents, faculty & staff and alumni.