Politics & Government

Town of Smithtown Debuts New Website

Plans aim to help town get out more information, put some services online in near future.

 

Residents logging into the Town of Smithtown's website will notice the page has gotten a bright and colorful overhall. 

The Town of Smithtown slowy rolled a new website last Friday, working out last-minute bugs and challenges over the last few days. Images of Town Hall and the Smithtown Bull greet visitors as they land on the page.

Find out what's happening in Commackwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Our goal is to push out more information to residents," said Ken Burke, head of Smithtown's Information Technology department. 

The new website designed by CivicPlus over the last six months has new features including an interactive calendar on the homepage that links to information for local events, RSS feeds on town news and alerts and a Facebook page. A red header across the top of the homepage allows residents to make a profile to log in, build their own custom dashboard and sign up for notifications. 

Find out what's happening in Commackwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"There are still more components of it that will be rolled out. We said 'Let's get this replaced with new technology," Burke said. 

Town officials are hoping to get new software for the Building Department that in the future would allow residents to file request for certain permits online, submitting both the application and paying required fees. 

"People's expectations are to be able to submit their taxes online and sign them. The federal government is doing it, so the municipal, state and local governments have to go in the same direction," Burke said. 

Other possible considerations include allowing Town of Smithtown residents to reserve campsites at town parks, as well as allowing homeowners to submit tickets for special trash pick-ups or creating a feature to allow reporting of potholes to the Highway Department, according to the IT head. 

"This is a building block. It's a good base so we can expand on it over time," Burke said. 

CivicPlus is a company that specializes in building county and government e-communications systems, and has done work for other municipalities on Long Island including Southhold. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here