New Town Website Goes Live Aug. 1

The town's website is about to get a significant facelift.

The public got its first look at the redesigned Town of Salem website at Monday night's Board of Selectmen meeting. The new site is scheduled to go live Aug. 1.

"We wanted to give it a more updated feel," said Salem Information Technology Director Cynthia Crescenzi.

A new slideshow will appear on the front page that highlights the town motto of "Recreation, Industry and Commerce."

There will also be a calender on the bottom of the front page where town departments will be able to add their own events as well as external links to town sources.

The site has new drop-down menus for each town department along the top of the page, allowing easier access than the current site.

"There is an option to receive e-mail updates," Crescenzi said.

She noted the website redesign would not have been possible without the generosity of the Salem Police, who allowed the town to use asset forfiture funds to build out the site.

"That allowed us to add the functionality to allow departments to manage their own pages," she said.

"I've tried to stress to the departments that it's absolutely important for them to add new information and take out old information when they can," Town Manager Keith Hickey said. "It's a really good resource."

Hickey also said he would like to put the documents selectmen receive before their meetings on the websites beforehand, which is something Selectman Stephen Campbell said would be a great idea.

The town's present website can be accessed here.