Work is underway to upgrade the City of Washington’s decade-old website, and city officials are hoping that a new site will improve communication between the city and its residents. From online options for reporting issues throughout the city to integration with the city’s social media platforms, the new will boast a variety of new features.

“It will mesh well with all of our social media platforms and will allow for more interactions with citizens as far as reporting potholes, trash, ordinance enforcement and anything of that nature, as well as just improving the information flow for what’s going on around town,” said Jonathan Russell, Washington’s city manager.

Before the website goes live, Russell said the city is working with the design company to produce a draft site that residents will be able to access. During this test-run phase, users will be able to share feedback and suggestions for what kinds of features they would like to see included in the final product.

“We’ll have a web address we can hopefully get in the paper and on our social media sites to solicit input from citizens on what they would like to see,” Russell said. “We want to have input from as many sources as possible on that. I think that will help that go smoothly. There’s no way to think of everything, so from a development standpoint, that will help.”

In the past few years, the city has been working to improve its online presence and citizen outreach through its various social media channels, including regular updates to the city’s “City of Washington, NC” and “Washington, NC on the Pamlico” Facebook pages.

“I think, ultimately, what we want to do is make it two-way communication,” Russell said. “It’s something we can use to get information out to the public, but it’s also something where you can report potholes or code violations or any areas of concern. It basically just consists of taking your phone out, taking a picture and interacting with the city website.”

These user-generated items will then be used to help the city generate work orders and ensure that issues are taken care of in a timely manner. Russell estimated that the demo site could go live by early October.

To see the city’s current website, visit www.washingtonnc.gov.