New Shelter Island Town website goes live tomorrow

It’s been seven months in the making, but on Thursday at 11 a.m. the town’s new website will go live.

Kevin Lechmanski, the town’s IT specialist, and Administrative Assistant Kristina Martin Majdisova, walked through what people accessing the website will see and how it is intended to work.

Mr. Lechmanski explained that an improved website grew out of the needs of the Comprehensive Plan Task Force and Advisory Board working to make constant changes to the document.

What people saw on their screens was all right, but what was happening on the back side was anything but smooth, Mr. Lechmanski said. He and the IT Committee began getting information from a number of tech companies and checking with other towns to see what works for them.

They all came back with the same answer — use CivicPlus. Some had tried other companies who all promised but failed to deliver the results the others had expected. CivicPlus delivers what’s promised, officials in Southold, East Hampton and Southampton said.

Committee information has migrated to the new site where the homepage contains a calendar, and from the calendar listings the user can go to individual pages that provide listings of committee members, agendas, Zoom links, backup materials and, when meetings are recorded, access to those videos.

Users can ask for updates of all meetings. Ms. Martin Majdisova demonstrated the process of moving around the new site; her demonstration can be accessed by viewing the video from the Tuesday work session just a few minutes after the meeting begins.

There has been a lot of troubleshooting, but until a site goes live, it’s not always possible to know everything users may encounter. The Town Board is asking for patience, but also for assistance in letting members know about any difficulties they may encounter so emerging problems can be quickly rectified.