- Assessor's Office
- Attorney's Office
- Building Department
- Central Fire Alarm
- Comptroller's Office
- Contract Compliance & Administration
- Councilmembers
- Department of Information Technology
- Economic Development
- Emergency Services & Safety
- Engineering Department
- Finance Department
- Highway Department
- Human Resources
- Office of the Supervisor
- Planning Department
- Police Department
- Senior Services
- Town Clerk
- Town Court
- Youth and Recreation Department
Objectives
Ongoing website objectives include improved Town department participation, added functionality and accessibility to information, improved communication with the Town Board, scheduled maintenance, and an improved Town project area. Most importantly, the website has reduced routine interactions between residents and Town staff allowing employees to better utilize their time. This continues to be a major objective of the Town’s website.
Background
The Town of Amherst’s official website has been maintained by the Office of Information Technology (IT) since May, 2000. In that time period, the site has been upgraded several times. The first upgrade was performed in 2000 and included the migration from an outside provider to an in-house, town managed webserver. Subsequent upgrades have included graphical and functional improvements. The functional improvements, although not always obvious to the end-users, have always remained paramount to the site.
In 2002 the site received another major overhaul. At that time significant improvements were made to property information served on the website. Both assessment information and a full featured assessment challenge system were developed and launched. Access to extensive property tax information was also advanced at this time.
In April, 2003, the Town Board adopted the Town of Amherst Website Content and Submission Policy.
Further improvements to the site were completed in 2005 and 2006. Modules were added to allow remote updating by various departments through secure logins. The majority of the information found on our site is "data driven". In other words, the thousands of available web pages are created using databases not individually created pages. This technique allows for much more flexibility when presenting and searching for information. Additionally, maintaining data driven websites can be done using a number of alternative techniques.
The IT staff interfaces with all town departments in an effort to maintain timely and accurate information on our website. Efforts have been made to allow various departments maintain website information directly. These "user update pages" have been highly successful in maintaining up-to-date information for website visitors.
The latest website upgrade is the most extensive to date. It includes a full overhaul of the graphical interface, organization of materials and improved functionality for end users. Additionally, the ongoing maintenance has been improved through improved database techniques. These changes were in direct response to a website satisfaction survey conducted over several months in 2007. The results of this survey illustrated areas for improvement as well as areas of strength.
In an ongoing effort to make our site responsive to our visitors, we welcome your feedback. If you have a suggestion for new information or if you can't find something you're looking for, please do not hesitate contacting the Town's Web Developer.