The Village of Garden City website has a new and improved look. The user-friendly updates, which debuted this month, are intended to improve a user’s interactive experience.
Five new icons sit prominently above the “Notifications and Alerts” box to enable users to pay their bills online, visit the department tabs of Public works and Recreation & Parks, download applications and forms and check out the Visitors Center with just one click.
Residents can also now sign up to receive email alerts to keep track of the village’s sanitation and meeting schedules, as well as receive updates from village hall and the recreation & parks department. Moreover, the events calendar, though smaller, now sits higher up on the page.
Under the Boards and Commissions – Board of Trustees tab, which can be found on the left side of the homepage, residents can read a summary of action taken at every board of trustees meeting. This new section was created back in February to enhance the village’s communication level with residents.
Further, a three-month snapshot for each season now sits at the bottom of the homepage, detailing upcoming events around town, and a more detailed weather report can now be found on the left side of the homepage, under the Photo/Video Galleries tab.
“We are very receptive to these improvements because we want the end user to be satisfied,” Village Clerk Brian S. Ridgway said. “We want to provide pertinent information to residents, and these improvements enhance our ability to do that.”
Approximately 90 percent of all the live updates were accomplished in-house thanks to the work of Ridgway and village staffers Carol Astone and Tom McGerty.
A sixth icon, which awaits board of trustees approval, will enable users to report anything from the field with their Smartphone camera, including downed tree limbs, potholes, even graffiti. Users can email the photo using a “See, Click, Fix” icon, and, with help from a GPS tracking system, village staffers can send crews out to the exact location. Once the problem is corrected, crews can then update and close out the ticket. This will send an alert back to the user who first reported the issue, letting the resident know it’s been corrected.
“This system makes us more accountable,” Ridgway said.
If approved, the See, Click, Fix icon will go live on or about July 1. The program would be fully operational come the fall/winter, according to Ridgway.
