The City of Arlington has launched a redesigned website at www.arlingtonwa.gov, designed to make it easier to locate key information about the city, contact city officials, conduct business with the city--including paying bills online--and search the city's completely updated municipal code.

The city launched the new website on February 10, 2011. Primary goals for the site included making it easier to navigate and update, adding social media components, improving the overall content available for review and downloading, and improving the overall appearance of the site.

"We're social!" said city spokesperson Kristin Banfield. "The new website provides direct feeds to Twitter and Facebook. Residents and businesses can 'follow' city business at www.twitter.com/arlingtonwa and 'like' us at www.facebook.com/arlingtonwa. Social media components are another way to reach out to many of our residents, businesses, and visitors."

One of the significant changes to the website is the calendar of events. The calendar not only displays all of the city events on one schedule, but also displays the agenda of that event so the user doesn't have to search any further. The new site also makes it easier for staff to upload information, increasing efficiency.

Visitors will still be able to sign up for email updates on city council agendas, board and commission agendas, employment opportunities, and road closures. And residents and business owners can continue to contact city staff about a particular problem or concern through the "Request Tracker" system.

The redevelopment of Arlington's official website was a year-long project.

"The City initially started looking at the websites of other local jurisdictions to determine what we were missing," said Bryan Terry, Information Services Manager. "The websites we continued to revisit all had the same company at their core: Vision Internet."

Based in Santa Monica, California, Vision Internet has vast experience with municipal websites, advanced features and applications, competitive pricing, and a thorough understanding of Arlington's unique needs. The company has designed award-winning websites for Lancaster, California, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Park City, Utah, as well as municipal sites for the Washington cities of Longview, Maple Valley, SeaTac, Shoreline and Wenatchee.

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