Ottertail council approves redesign of city’s website
News | Published on February 27, 2024 at 2:03pm EST | Author: henningmaster
0New website to be more user friendly
By Chad Koenen
Publisher
The City of Ottertail will receive a major face-lift online.
During its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 13, the Ottertail City Council approved a proposal from Catalyst to redesign the city’s website.
While the city has made updates to its website over the years, City Clerk/Treasurer Amanda Thorson said the city’s website is beginning to look outdated as new and more user friendly websites have become available.
“In my opinion, yes our website does look dated,” she said.
In weighing whether the city should update its website or not, Thorson said one of her big concerns revolved around learning a new program to update the website should the city proceed with a redesigned option. After speaking with representatives from Catalyst she was assured that the city staff would not need to learn an elaborate new program in order to make updates to the website.
Ottertail City Councilwoman Elizabeth Augustus agreed that there were a number of updates that would be useful for the city’s website that could make it more user friendly for the general public. She said she looked at the four options provided by Catalyst and was in favor of moving forward with a complete redesign of the website.
“I just quickly looked at these ones and I just think the layout looks a lot more user friendly than ours,” said Augustus. “Even I have tried to find a couple of things on ours and I am like I think it is here, but actually it is here. Just the look right away and the look is really nice (of the new websites).”
The city council approved moving forward with a redesign of its website and a four year contract with Catalyst to continue hosting and maintaining the website.
In other news
• Approved a resolution supporting the Ottertail Family Center. A group of local residents are raising money to build a new daycare and family center in Ottertail and the group was seeking a formal resolution of support as they continue to raise money for the project.
• Approved moving the regularly scheduled meeting in March to March 14 at 5:30 p.m. due to a conflict.
• Approved a donation from Lake Region Electric Cooperative Operation Round-Up for $600 for the Ottertail Fire Department.
• Approved a resolution from the Ottertail Lions Club for $2,500 to purchase a warming house for the public ice skating rink at Thumper Pond.
• Approved seeking bids for the Tyler Wohlers Memorial Trail along Highway 78 south of Ottertail. The city will need to get an easement for the trail that would be between the city and a private property owner. The cost of the new trail is estimated to be $425,000, which has been raised through a variety of grants, state funding and private donations.
• Approved seeking bids for the Wallenberg Drive surface improvement project. The city received a request from several property owners along Wallenberg Drive to place a layer of bituminous over the current Class 5 gravel road.