WILTON — Wilton Town Manager Perry Ellsworth provided a small update on the state of the town’s website on Tuesday, Aug. 15, at the Wilton Board of Selectpersons meeting.
At the meeting, Ellsworth stated that the website was still being worked on by Chair of the Board Tiffany Maiuri. At the next meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 5, Ellsworth will bring to the board a proposal to withdraw $5,000 from American Rescue Plan Act [ARPA] funds to use on the town’s website.
“[That] would be $50 a week to get the entire website updated over the next year and get to put something in place so that we can spend minimal time getting those agendas out,” Ellsworth told the board.
Ellsworth anticipates putting all past agendas and the minutes of previous meetings from as far back as 2018 on the website as well.
Ellsworth started the push to redevelop and modernize the website back in December of 2022. An update on the website was provided in February, with Ellsworth confessing to the board that things were not going to plan with the redesign.
“Website is a mess. It can’t be fixed without spending lots of money,” Ellsworth stated before declaring the website “out for maintenance” as he searched for possible solutions to the issues.
Maiuri offered her assistance in reverting the website back to a functional state and training office staff in what they need to know for updating the website. However, as of their meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 1, Maiuri feels that is no longer an option.
“We don’t have the capacity to do it in house at this time,” Maiuri told the board. According to Maiuri, despite having done training sessions with the staff to get them up to speed with updating the website, the staff does not have the capacity to keep the website up to date.
Maiuri, along with Ellsworth, suggested bringing in a web developer as well as investing more funds into the website and its maintenance.
“Most towns spend between [$2,000 and $3,000] at minimum on their websites annually,” Ellsworth said. “We’ve been spending $500, and so it’s catch up time.”
Also at the next meeting, Ellsworth mentioned that he would be bringing other smaller issues to the Select Board that he wanted to tackle before his time as town manager is up.
“I’ll have a number of other proposals for you at the next meeting,” Ellsworth stated. “Mostly small ones, but they’re things that have happened over the last year that we need to get fixed while I’m still here.”
Ellsworth is expected to depart from the role of town manager the first of November. The town has begun accepting applications for the position and will also be discussing the formation of a hiring committee at the next Board of Selectpersons meeting.
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