The town of Wilton has launched the first stages of its new, comprehensive website Thursday, a site built by town officials over the past six months at little cost to taxpayers.

While other communities, such as Farmington, pay upward of $20,000 for a professionally designed website, Wilton’s site is the product of volunteers donating their time.

WiltonMaine.org features a cover photo of Wilson Lake topped by four navigation tabs, and an updating calender of events in a right-side column.

Irish said the town officials’ goal was to create a website that could market the town better and draw publicity for town events, without charging taxpayers for an outside contractor to build the site.

Town Manager Rhonda Irish said Thursday that Selectwoman Tiffany Maiuri did most of the leg work, using a free website building site. She said town officials worked on the site in their spare time over the past six months.

“We haven’t had any cost involved,” she said. “It’s a huge work in progress still.”

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Along with being generally more comprehensive, Irish said, the website has new features such as a calendar of events so residents can stay connected with what is happening in Wilton.

The website also will link to Facebook pages of the Town Office, the Recreation Department and police.

While a version of the site went live last Thursday, Irish called it a “soft launch,” and the town is still actively transfering information to the new Web pages.

“We know we are going to add more pictures of employees of the different departments, like the highway, transfer and fire departments,” she said.

The previous website had been designed and built in the 1990s, Irish said, and was hard for residents to navigate. It was also difficult for the town officials to update it with more current information.

‘It was not very user-friendly, as far as being able to add information to it,” she said.

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Irish said the website gives the town a more professional web presence to help further its goal of attracting businesses. Selectmen have been holding workshops with the Greater Franklin Development Corp. to find ways to bring more business to the town, and she said the website helps advertise incentives the town offers to new businesses.

“We need something that will showcase the town in a more professional way,” she said.

Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252

kschroeder@centralmaine.com


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