Ford City Website Template Presented at Work Session
Borough Manager Eden Ratliff showed off the template of the possible website last night.
by Jonathan Weaver
The newest Ford City Borough website was previewed by a trio of Council members Monday evening.
At the monthly work session, Borough Manager Eden Ratliff showed Council members Kathy Bartuccio, Jerry Miklos and Vickie Schaub screenshots of the new www.fordcityborough.org.
The website has been constructed in bits-and-pieces the past few months by Ratliff and Borough Councilman Josh Abernathy.
“Josh and I kind-of put this together and worked on it just to see an idea of what you guys think. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to pursue it,” Ratliff said. “We didn’t put a whole lot of time into this - we want to make sure our website is everything we want it to be and has everything we want it to have before we put it out to the world.”
The homepage tentatively showed photos of the Ford City clock tower, the John B. Ford statue in Ford City Park and the Ford City PPG Tunnel, with inside views of Ford City Park and local roadways.
“Very easy to update – we can manage this website from the Borough office,” Ratliff said. “Update things on it, put documents up there, make changes, add photos – whatever needs to happen.”
It also included pages to visit information and contact information for police officers, elected officials and public works crews, with other pages designated for ordinances, promoting upcoming events and information of other municipal and residential services.
Planning Development Committee Member Tyson Klukan gave Council members quotes from professionals during the regular meeting earlier this month, but Ratliff said the annual cost for the site through Wix.com could be about $200 per year or less (depending on which of the five plans Council decides.
All plans include free hosting, Google analytics and premium support according to the webpage.
“I remember thinking we could get away with this for a couple hundred bucks per year,” Ratliff said. “It’s free to start up.”
Former Website Administrator Ryan Bloser constructed the website before he graduated from high school in 2002 and said the website project would be a good project for a high school/collegiate team to work on, especially with all the updates that have occurred since his initial construction.
Ford City Borough paid roughly $135 per year for the web service, but the website has not been updated since August 2011 according to the current homepage.
There are also opportunities on the website to promote access to social media sites, and audience members suggested Borough officials take community event information and news – such as during water line breaks like occurred last week along 3rd Avenue.
While all three Council members approved of the work Ratliff displayed Monday, no decision was made when elected officials will vote on the proposal.
One item that will be on the upcoming meeting agenda, however, is what to do with the Borough Police Department’s third police car.
Council members voted last year to purchase a 1998 Ford police cruiser from Pine Township, but with another repair needed, elected officials are wondering if it being utilized regularly by officers.
Miklos – the Borough Vice President – and Schaub – Police Committee Chair – agreed that it is not needed. Miklos said the vehicle has been certified in good condition, but now another repair of a few hundred dollars is needed after the vehicle was reportedly covered in snow during the winter as opposed to the other two police vehicles.
“We have three police cars, and my personal opinion is, we don’t need three police cars,” Miklos said.
Council members are no longer pursuing to add a new vehicle to the fleet and swap out one of the existing vehicles, according to Miklos.
At the beginning of the calendar year, Miklos stated he had been soliciting bids for a police car, but had not received a price for a new vehicle at dealerships that would allow for an outright purchase -$19,400 - rather than soliciting three bids.
“We put a lot of work in to finding bids for our new police car. The (Chevrolet) came in at the lowest price, and the police department wanted a Ford,” Miklos said.
Local Business Manager Jaime Thompson said officials should not consider purchasing a new vehicle, regardless of make or model.
“We can’t afford a new vehicle – I want new things at the shop, but it’s not happening unless I show (if) it’s going to bring money in,” Thompson said.
The latest vehicle purchased was also a Ford Crown Victoria.
