PANAMA CITY BEACH — A new website for the city of Panama City Beach is up and running after more than a year in development.
City officials say the new site — www.pcbgov.com — allows people to connect more easily to features they often use and includes new sections that will improve their access to information.
“It is a lot more user-friendly for navigation and learning things,” said Assistant City Manager John Alaghemand. “I think the benefit is just improving the communication … between the city and the citizens.”
The new site also is much more aesthetically pleasing, Alaghemand said. The background picture on the site, which on Friday was a shot of two men fishing, continually alternates.
“Each time you click on the home page the background picture changes,” he said, potentially promoting the city to tourists.
“The whole website has changed,” Alaghemand said. “Before it was pretty boring, to be honest with you. With this site you can really maneuver a lot easier and simpler.”
A bar at the top of the page has several quick links with information that many people frequently are looking for when they go to the city’s site, such as job openings, service requests and e-notifications.
Under the e-notification section, which is a new feature, users can be put on an email list for things like job openings and bid openings.
“The first time when they go register, they will be able to give their email and name and they can select from the list of options,” he said.
A contractor interested in bids who signs up for the service can be notified by email when bids are submitted and published. The city could get more bids with this system, he said.
“A lot of people who are interested in our advertisements will get notification of the bid the first day they are published,” he said. “It’s important they have that information way ahead of time.”
The site has a link to the Municode website so people can easily look up what laws are in effect in the city, and the job opening section is easier to access than the prior page, Alaghemand said.
The information about the City Council has been expanded and also includes sliding pictures of the elected officials in different situations, such as one showing Mayor Gayle Oberst with first lady Michelle Obama during her 2010 visit. The website also has a picture page with a montage of city pictures.
“It’s not boring,” he said. “I think that is a good way of explaining it. We’re keeping people interested. Also, you will be able to get whatever information you normally require.”
The city hired Vision Internet Providers out of California to get the page up and running at a cost of $57,925. The annual maintenance fee will be $7,200.
City department heads submitted copy and photos to the site, and Alaghemand served as editor of the copy.
Alaghemand said the city was able to negotiate a lower price than Vision’s initial bid, as city staff did a lot of the work in supplying page content.