Dyer gives go-ahead for prototype

By Lloyd Garrison

First Selectman Sue Dyer has endorsed a move by three members of the Coalition for Sound Growth to revamp the town’s Web site.

In a meeting at Town Hall on May 8, Mary Fanette, Jon Riedeman and Daryl Eaton showed Dyer a mock-up of a new full-color home page with a variety of links to town organizations, local businesses and such non-profit groups as the library and the Norfolk Land Trust. “We also stressed the need for an up-to-date community calendar,” says Fanette.

“I think it is a good idea,” says Dyer, who suggested that the three broaden their numbers and form a subcommittee under the umbrella of the Economic Development Commission. Once approved by the selectmen’s office, the committee would be free to flesh out the Web site and submit their changes to the selectmen for review.

“We intend to canvass residents and confer at length with local businesses and various town commissions to get their input,” says Fanette, who has taken a course in web design and has collaborated with Riedeman and Eaton on the prototype.

The group has also visited the volunteers who created Cornwall’s Web site. “There is a lot to learn from the  Cornwall model,” says Fanette. “Theirs is not an official town Web site, but is independent, so it costs the town nothing.”

The home page mock up presented to Dyer includes a brief history of Norfolk and links to town government (with minutes of all public meetings), school events, church news, businesses and services, cultural activities, inns and B & B’s, the day’s weather and a photo of the week.

The town’s current site was begun nearly two years ago and has never been completed. It offers few active links and contains numerous errors, notably in the town profile.