Town website creator shutting down

Shelter Island Town will be launching a new website, but it’s currently unclear when that will happen or who will have responsibility for its design. Nor is it clear just when the town’s service will become unavailable.

Members of the Information Technology Committee told the Town Board at its November 8 work session they’ve been informed  the company managing the town’s current website is going out of business and it’s  necessary to select a new provider rapidly.

While the town had paid Site2You, its website builder, through May 2018, notice came to the committee that the town would have only two weeks to get a new site up and running.

That information has had members of the committee scrambling to to extend the deadline by which it must give up its current site and exploring options for the creation of a replacement  site.

Police Chief Jim Read said  it would be best to have a single site for the town that would include his department.

Supervisor Jim Dougherty declared that the town can’t be without a website, encouraging committee members to pressure Site2You to continue to provide services to Shelter Island until a new provider is identified and given time to develop a replacement site.

Currently Mary Ellen McGayhey and Chris Tehan provide updates to the website. Ms. McGayhey said she designed the original website and maintained it daily. Jennifer Beresky maintains the Police Department website, updating it as needed.

Ms. McGayhey and Craig Wood said the IT Committee would be meeting Thursday to discuss long- and short-term goals.

Meanwhile, Mr. Wood said he’s collecting background information about how the sites were developed and who holds the logins, where the domains are registered and other pertinent information.