By Devon Cormier
Staff Writer

ON THE WEB – The New Boston Web site has been updated and made more user-friendly. The same address is still being used: www.newboston.nh.us.

New Boston residents have been waiting months for a new, user-friendly town Web site and finally, they have it.

The town Web site is at the same address, www.newboston.nh.us, but it’s undergone quite a face-lift. The site is being run by a company called Virtual Town Hall, which specializes in designing and running Web sites for towns.

“We came to realize that more and more people are using the Internet. And when we think of serving the public, instead of thinking of them coming here, we need to think about serving them without even leaving their home,” said Town Administrator Burton Reynolds. “With Virtual Town Hall, a lot of the things we are trying to accomplish they have built right in.”

Virtual Town Hall charges an annual fee of $995 and a startup fee of $395. The startup fee was taken out of the parks and recreation fund, which contains fees residents pay to participate in town programs, said Reynolds. The annual fee has been budgeted for and will be taken out of the town general fund from now on.

The Web site is user-friendly for residents and volunteers as well. Residents can expect to be able to sign up for programs and pay on the Web site as well as browse meeting minutes and agendas.

Town volunteers can expect to spend much less time keeping the site up and running.

Kim Burkhamer works in the town’s assessing office and has been volunteering to do Web site upkeep for some time.

“We had seven years of a volunteer effort for the Web site,” said Burkhamer. “You are volunteering to spend your own personal time doing it, so many volunteers work mainly at night, but the information they need is at the town hall and it’s closed. It was a struggle getting information in a timely manner and then getting it onto the site.”

Burkhamer said the system will now be more automatic. When departments have their agendas, meeting minutes, programs or anything else ready, they will send it to Burkhamer immediately. Burkhamer will be responsible for getting the content onto the Web site, but she said, it will be a little easier.

“We can now get more information out in a timely manner to New Boston residents,” Burkhamer said. “I’m having a lot of fun with it. I enjoy these kinds of things.”

The site has links to all town departments and lists the phone numbers and e-mail addresses of most employees. Events and other links show the lighter side of New Boston, while important town news, like the town report, is also online.

“I’m pretty sure this is something people will use more and more as time goes on,” said Reynolds. “We need to keep it current and we will do that.”