Anyone who now types in elizabethton.org in a Web browser and hits enter may notice a big change.

City of Elizabethton officials agree that the changes will benefit everyone who attempts to access the new website.

“This is something City Council has been wanting to do for a while, and understandably so,” City Manager Jerome Kitchens said in a news release. “This new website will give the city residents, businesses and visitors easier access to city information.”

The vibrant green and orange site is now set up with six tabs labeled home, government, departments, residents, businesses and visitors. Elizabethton Planning and Economic Development Director Jon Hartman was excited about the whole website update, but most excited about two new features.

“There’s now a recent news feature,” said Hartman, who worked with Anthony Lawrence to redesign the site. “We also have a calendar of city events.”

The government tab includes information about City Council, all city boards and commissions, the city charter, code of ordinance and a page for the city’s history.

The departments tab has secondary tabs labeled administration, fire, parks and recreation, planning and development, police, public library, streets and sanitation and utilities.

The residents tab brings up a drop down menu that contains information about county government, local utilities, events, city services, education, the golf course, Elizabethton Twins and a link for paying taxes, bills and fines.

The businesses tab will take Internet surfers to pages about economic development, the Elizabethton/Carter County Chamber of Commerce, small business resources, community business data, business licenses, site development information and the airport.

The visitors tab provides links to several pages on the county’s tourism website as well as the airport’s website and the Retire Tennessee website.

Buttons labeled document center, job openings, online payments and contact us are located below a photo carousel, which features all of the city’s attractions like the Covered Bridge and downtown.

The old website, which was created in 2002, was HTML based, Hartman said.

“It went from a HTML based site to a content management based site,” Hartman said. “It’s much more user friendly on the consumer side and also on the administrative side of things. Each department can manage specific components of their own page.”

The new website’s content management technology is hosted by Revize Software Systems, which is a company that has worked with many other government agencies like McMinnville in Warren County, Tenn., and Polk County, N.C.

“They’ve worked with a variety of cities big and small,” Hartman said. “We were confident in their ability to deliver the kind of product we needed and product we wanted to provide for our citizens.”

The site will also automatically adjust to fit tablet and mobile screens more effectively.

“This site is much easier to navigate than it has been in past,” Hartman said.
There are still a few kinks, but Hartman said the site is already fully functional.

“Most of the information is actually already on there,” Hartman said. “We encourage everyone to go on there and check it out.”