New Town of Norfolk Website Goes Online

Community input still needed

 

By Wiley Wood

If you’ve got it, flaunt it. That was the basic idea behind the drive to create a new website for the Town of Norfolk.

The old website was handsome but drab, functional in concept, embellished with photos by a local photographer, but its information was often stale or just plain wrong, as when the names of residents who had moved away or moved on stayed on the lists of town committee members, sometimes for years.

The new website, it was projected, would still be useful to residents, give lots of details about town government and commission meetings, but it would also let the casual websurfer know that Norfolk had something to offer: that it was beautiful, friendly, well-organized and chock-full of interesting things to see and do.

Now, some two years after the first meetings over kitchen tables and Town Hall desks, after many deadlines and postponements, the new Town of Norfolk website has gone live.

What smacks you in the face when you first visit the site is the sheer quantity of graphics incorporated into its structure. There is a slide show on the home page trumpeting Norfolk’s unspoiled character—past, present and (with a nod to Soviet realism) future. Every click of the mouse brings you face-to-face with a new visual facet of the town: the ball field, the fireproof safe in the town clerk’s office, an aerial shot of Tobey Pond and its surrounding woods, the mansard-roofed room in Town Hall where Norfolk casts its ballots and holds its winter farmers market.

“We met with three photographers from town,” explains Mary Fanette, the town’s webmaster, “and most of the pictures are theirs.” The photographers are Bruce Frisch, Katherine Griswold and Christopher Little. Other pictures were taken by Fanette herself and the website’s designer, Seth Girardin.

With Seth Girardin as he presents the new town website are, from left, Linda Perkins, Mary Fanette, Wiley Wood, Sue Dyer, Michele Sloane and Pete Anderson.

With Seth Girardin as he presents the new town website are, from left, Linda Perkins, Mary Fanette, Wiley Wood, Sue Dyer, Michele Sloane and Pete Anderson.

At a meeting on Thursday, June 23, Girardin sat in front of a large screen and demonstrated some of the recently added features to a group at Town Hall. There is a calendar of upcoming events, a big colorful array with illustrations and accompanying text. There is a directory, again graphically presented, with photos and snippets of information about town organizations and businesses.

A tab labeled “Visitors” reveals a pull-down menu of places to stay and things to do in Norfolk. A tab labeled “Residents” offers a smorgasbord of starter facts about the town—links to local utility companies, guidelines for the transfer station, dates when the sewer taxes are due—under the rubric “Welcome Wagon.” There is also a complete section on town government.

Some of the tabs seem a little thin. At the time of writing, there are only two items in the list of things to see in Norfolk. Girardin explains that the site is still unfinished: “We’re at version .85 right now,” says Girardin, “and working up to version 1.0. The site will become more robust as people use it and as organizations send us more information about their activities and upcoming events.”

The gatekeeper for the site is webmaster Fanette, who has been urging local organizations and stakeholders to contact her with information. She hopes to get an influx of responses and feedback in the coming weeks and months.

First Selectman Sue Dyer is pleased with the result: “Seth did a great job in making the website attractive. We hope it will make people want to come and visit—and maybe even move here.”

The cost to the town, so far, has been $1,500. The remainder was raised by the Coalition for Sound Growth, a local nonprofit. The group, under the leadership of Vint Lawrence, held a fundraiser last summer for the website and secured a grant for it from a local foundation. The website is a project of the town’s Economic Development Commission.

According to Pete Anderson, a member of the EDC and the CSG, “That the town wanted a website as attractive as this and as rich in features sends a message to people about Norfolk.”

Photos by Bruce Frisch. Top: Website designer Seth Girardin demonstrates the new Town of Norfolk website at Town Hall on June 23.

 

 

 

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