Municipal Website & Technology Support

Helping Small Towns & Villages Keep Their Communities Informed

Small municipalities have a lot to do.

A town clerk, village clerk, supervisor, mayor, board members, and other officials may already be handling far more than most residents ever see.

Then there is the website.

Meeting notices need to be posted. Agendas and minutes need to be available. Residents need to find forms, laws, contact information, announcements, events, and other public information.

Keeping all of that current takes time.

Zehr.net can help.

Just Send Us the Information

Not every municipality has the time or staff to maintain its own website.

And not every town or village needs another employee to do it.

There is another option.

Send us the approved information, and we can take care of the website.

Zehr.net can provide ongoing website and technology support for towns, villages, and other small municipal governments. Your municipality creates and approves its official information. We help organize, publish, maintain, and present that information online.

Routine Municipal Website Updates

A municipal website is not something that is finished when it launches. It is an ongoing public information resource.

We can help post and maintain:

• Meeting notices
• Agendas
• Meeting minutes
• Public notices
• News and announcements
• Community events
• Local laws, codes, and resolutions
• Forms and applications
• Department information
• Officials and contact information
• Policies and procedures
• Emergency and time-sensitive information
• Downloadable documents and public resources

Instead of asking municipal staff to become website developers, let them concentrate on municipal business while we take care of the website.

Meeting Information & Public Records

Municipal websites have become an important part of open government and public access to information.

New York municipalities have responsibilities involving online publication of certain meeting notices, minutes, and records associated with public meetings.

Zehr.net can provide the technical support needed to publish and organize the material your municipality supplies.

The municipality remains responsible for determining its legal obligations and for the accuracy, approval, and official status of municipal records. Our role is to help make publishing and maintaining that information straightforward and dependable.

Accessible Municipal Websites

Government information should be available to everyone.

Accessibility is increasingly important for state and local government websites, and modern accessibility requirements affect the way websites, documents, navigation, images, forms, and other digital information are prepared.

Zehr.net can help municipalities improve website accessibility through:

• Accessible page structure and navigation
• Readable typography and responsive design
• Alternative text for meaningful images
• Keyboard-friendly navigation
• Accessible forms
• Color and contrast review
• Document and PDF accessibility awareness
• Ongoing accessibility review as new content is added

Accessibility is not simply a one-time website project. New information is continually added to municipal websites, so accessibility needs to be considered as part of ongoing website maintenance.

.GOV Domain Assistance

A .gov address helps residents recognize that they are visiting an official government website.

Unlike ordinary domain names, .gov domains are restricted to verified U.S. government organizations and are administered by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Zehr.net has experience working with .gov domains and can assist eligible municipalities with the technical side of obtaining, configuring, and using a .gov domain.

We can help with:

• Planning a move to .gov
• Domain name and technical preparation
• Working through the .gov setup process with authorized municipal officials
• DNS and name server configuration
• Connecting the domain to the municipal website
• Website redirects from an existing domain
• Email-related DNS configuration
• Ongoing domain and DNS support

The municipality retains ownership and appropriate control of its government domain. Zehr.net provides the technical experience to help make the process easier.

DNS, Email & Domain Support

Behind every website and email address is a collection of technical services that most municipal officials should never have to think about.

Zehr.net has managed domains and DNS for decades.

We can assist with:

• DNS management
• Name servers
• Website DNS records
• Email MX records
• SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
• Domain verification records
• SSL and secure website connections
• Domain transitions and redirects
• Troubleshooting website and email DNS problems

If your municipality changes a website, email provider, domain, or other online service, we can help make sure the pieces continue working together.

Security & Reliable Hosting

A municipal website is part of the community's public infrastructure.

Security and reliability matter.

Zehr.net provides website hosting and ongoing technical maintenance with attention to:

• Secure website connections
• Server security
• Software and PHP updates
• Backups
• Website monitoring
• Spam and malicious traffic reduction
• Security logs and troubleshooting
• Recovery when something goes wrong

We believe a municipality should know who is taking care of its website and be able to reach a real person when help is needed.

Forms & Online Services

A good municipal website should do more than publish information. It should make routine interactions with local government easier.

Depending on the municipality's needs, we can help develop and maintain:

• Contact forms
• Permit and application information
• Request forms
• Community sign-ups
• Online document libraries
• Searchable information
• Department and service directories
• Links to appropriate online payment or government services

A System Designed for Small Municipalities

Zehr.net has experience designing, hosting, and maintaining websites for small municipalities.

We understand that a small town or village does not necessarily need a complicated enterprise content-management system.

It needs a website that is clear, fast, secure, accessible, easy for residents to navigate, and practical to maintain.

Our municipal website system can be adapted to the needs of each community while maintaining a consistent foundation for navigation, notices, meetings, documents, departments, and other public information.

You Don't Have to Do Everything Yourself

Some municipalities want to make their own routine updates. Others would rather send the information to us and have Zehr.net take care of it.

Either approach can work.

We can provide the level of support that fits your staff, available time, and technical comfort.

And if your needs change, the level of support can change with them.

More Than a Website Company

Because Zehr.net works with hosting, servers, domains, DNS, security, accessibility, databases, forms, and website development, municipalities do not have to coordinate several different companies every time something changes.

When a problem crosses from the website into the server, domain, DNS, or email configuration, we can often continue following the problem instead of simply saying, “That's someone else's system.”

For a small municipality with limited staff, that can make technology considerably easier to manage.

Let's Talk

If your town or village is struggling to keep its website current, considering a new municipal website, moving to a .gov domain, improving accessibility, or simply looking for dependable ongoing technical support, let's talk.

You take care of your community. Let us help take care of the website.

Brad Zehr
Zehr.net
brad@zehr.net