City of Colusa launches website

The City of Colusa has a new, overhauled Web site that it hopes will provide residents with easier access to local government.

Robert Hickey, Colusa’s city manager, said the new site should give citizens better access to local government and community events.

“We’re very excited about the changes,” Hickey said. “The new site makes it easier for people to find out exactly what’s going on locally.”

Colusa Web Master Lloyd Green Jr. of Datamind XP Productions designed the Web site. No information on the exact cost of the updates was available Wednesday. Due to the holiday season, Green was not available for comment.

“We feel it is wise to spend money if it opens up the government and makes everything we do transparent to the public,” said Hickey. “Many times people don’t get involved because the information is not easy enough to get at. The site makes that information very easy to find and view.”

Citizens now have improved access to governments documents with the new “Requests For Bids” link; which allows site visitors to view all bids and proposals that the Council is currently seeking or considering.

Citizens can also retrieve back-up documents for previous meeting of the City Council, Tree Commission, Parks and Recreation, Planning Commission, and the Colusa Heritage Partners Committee.

“We also have back-up documents, such as staff reports, imbedded in some previous agendas and minutes,” said Hickey. “It is designed so that if people want to know what happened at a particular meeting or track a specific issues, they can find a link that will take them to all relevant documents related to their search.”

Viewers can find everything from when trash will be collected over the holiday season, and City financial statements, to municipal job openings, including descriptions, salaries, and downloadable applications. The site also provides downloadable access to the City’s new General Plan.

The new site features a photo gallery of local businesses, wildlife, holiday activities, and historic buildings, which will be updated as the seasons change, officials said.

The site includes a brief history of the city, the Native American origins of its name and also lists the names and addresses of locally historic buildings.

A new interactive calendar allows visitors to view the daily activities of city and county government, as well as community events. Demographical and census statistics including population numbers, ethnicity stats, climate, land use, and geography are also available.

The site is a work-in-progress, Hickey said. “We’re still experiencing some growing pains as we learn what works and what doesn’t, but the site is vastly improved already and we feel goes along way to walking the talk to transparent government.”

Some bugs are still being worked, like the link to the City’s Finance Department, but officials say those problems are being worked out and encourage people to contact City Hall directly if they cannot find the information they are seeking online.

Hickey said that, as time goes on, the site would include all resolutions and ordinances, as well as a complete, interactive list of all Colusa municipal codes.

“The internet gives people the opportunity to have easy, convenient access their government and their community,” said Hickey. “If we can provide links to other areas of local interest, then so much the better for everyone in our area.”

Visit the site at http://www.colusa-ca.gov.

Robert Parsons is a reporter for the Colusa County Sun-Herald and can be reached at 458-2121 or via email at rparsons@tcnpress.com.