"Thomas Jefferson said a democracy is dependent on an informed citizenry. I don't care whether it sounds corny or not. It's the truth." -Jim Lehrer
Carefree Truth
Issue #953, September 27, 2021
Mayor Les Peterson noted that last fall, the Council and staff, headed by Gary Neiss who did a yeoman's work on this, looked at creating a new strategic work plan in order for the town to be successful. This was broken into 4 areas, or Pillars.
One was infrastructure management over the next 2 years. This was presented in July by the Town Engineer, Mark Milstone. In August, the Economic Development Director, Steve Prokopek, presented plans for economic growth and success, including the creation of a downtown Redevelopment District.
The 3rd Pillar, communications/marketing/community engagement, was presented at the September meeting by the Communications Coordinator, Alex Orozco. The Mayor said the Town website is a very important aspect because it is difficult to communicate in Carefree. There is no direct media and not all residents are on social media. Print newspapers cover news and events well beyond Carefree's boundaries, and there is no radio or TV that skews to Carefree.
Mayor Peterson announced that Carefree will soon be starting to update the 10 year General Plan, which describes who and what we are, and what we want to be over the next 10 years. How much commercial do we want and need? What is our focus? This is an intensive project.
Ms. Orozco explained that one of the main objectives of the 3rd pillar is to improve communications between residents, businesses and visitors with the Town. The website, Carefree.org, is a key component to external communications. For the past 6 months, she had been working with the Town's website designer to create and launch a new Town website. The new site launched on August 31st.
They identified clear issues on the previous site such as functionality, usability and overall user experience. They focused on simplicity for the new site, making it more user friendly with new functions for ease of navigation. The portal page acts as a fork in the road because having 2 websites for a small town is confusing. The portal page will allow users to choose the correct site for their intended purpose. The widget on the left leads to the Government page and the widget on the right leads to the tourism and visitor page. She recommended that the Council members play with it to become more familiar with the features because it will be the new home for all the future information.
If a word is typed into the Search bar, everything containing that word will appear. This bypasses looking through all the drop down menus. The most used functions are shown on Bubble Buttons with Quick Links. The Buttons will always remain at the bottom of the page as users go through the website.
A new newsletter called "Spotlight", with pertinent Town News and Events will be in the middle of the homepage. Feedback has indicated that people want to hear from the Mayor frequently, so there will be a Letter from the Mayor section there as well. The newsletter will also be available via subscription for specific subjects or for all subjects by clicking on the Alert button and choosing which notifications the user wishes to receive via email.
Council members Stephen Hatcher, Cheryl Kroyer, and Vince D'Aliesio said the site looked good but felt it was not sufficiently easy to subscribe to the newsletter. They suggested a simple, large Subscribe button be added. Ms. Orozco said that she would look at making suggested changes. This is new and she appreciated feedback. Vice Mayor John Crane asked if COINS would continue to exist. Ms. Orozco replied that it is separate from this and would continue to exist. Those who are already subscribed to COINS will continue to receive it.
Mayor Peterson asked Ms.Orozco to demonstrate the Water Acquisition section, which was shown as a bar at the top of the page. This section has all the information on the Water Acquisition Project to date, and it will continue to be updated throughout the process.
Vice Mayor Crane called it "a vast improvement to what we had", and added, "Well done." Ms. Kroyer noted that there is a lot to building a website, with all the information needing to be input, and commented that Ms. Orozco had spent the last 6 months on this project. Ms. Orozco agreed, and noted that websites are a great tool to communicate and to help residents and businesses get the knowledge and information they need about the town. This is an ongoing project, and the Town will continue to update it and to accept feedback to make it more accessible to everyone who needs it.
Mr. Hatcher asked if there is a section with videos. Ms. Orozco said she worked with a drone contractor and got some great footage, but the files are large and the website capacity is limited for compatibility with phones and i Pads, however, the Town has a YouTube channel to showcase meetings and events. Click the YouTube icon to access the channel, where videos will be housed and/or live-streamed. Mr. Hatcher very much liked the ideal of incorporating aerial views.
https://vimeo.com/601482073
Lyn Hitchon
Prepared by Carefree Truth
Copyrighted
Visit our website at www.carefreetruth2.com If you know anyone who would like to be added to the Carefree Truth email list, please have them contact me. Feel free to share Carefree Truth with others on your list.
Visit www.carefreeazbusinesses.com to see more info about businesses in Carefree. Please support our merchants.
One was infrastructure management over the next 2 years. This was presented in July by the Town Engineer, Mark Milstone. In August, the Economic Development Director, Steve Prokopek, presented plans for economic growth and success, including the creation of a downtown Redevelopment District.
The 3rd Pillar, communications/marketing/community engagement, was presented at the September meeting by the Communications Coordinator, Alex Orozco. The Mayor said the Town website is a very important aspect because it is difficult to communicate in Carefree. There is no direct media and not all residents are on social media. Print newspapers cover news and events well beyond Carefree's boundaries, and there is no radio or TV that skews to Carefree.
Mayor Peterson announced that Carefree will soon be starting to update the 10 year General Plan, which describes who and what we are, and what we want to be over the next 10 years. How much commercial do we want and need? What is our focus? This is an intensive project.
Ms. Orozco explained that one of the main objectives of the 3rd pillar is to improve communications between residents, businesses and visitors with the Town. The website, Carefree.org, is a key component to external communications. For the past 6 months, she had been working with the Town's website designer to create and launch a new Town website. The new site launched on August 31st.
They identified clear issues on the previous site such as functionality, usability and overall user experience. They focused on simplicity for the new site, making it more user friendly with new functions for ease of navigation. The portal page acts as a fork in the road because having 2 websites for a small town is confusing. The portal page will allow users to choose the correct site for their intended purpose. The widget on the left leads to the Government page and the widget on the right leads to the tourism and visitor page. She recommended that the Council members play with it to become more familiar with the features because it will be the new home for all the future information.
If a word is typed into the Search bar, everything containing that word will appear. This bypasses looking through all the drop down menus. The most used functions are shown on Bubble Buttons with Quick Links. The Buttons will always remain at the bottom of the page as users go through the website.
A new newsletter called "Spotlight", with pertinent Town News and Events will be in the middle of the homepage. Feedback has indicated that people want to hear from the Mayor frequently, so there will be a Letter from the Mayor section there as well. The newsletter will also be available via subscription for specific subjects or for all subjects by clicking on the Alert button and choosing which notifications the user wishes to receive via email.
Council members Stephen Hatcher, Cheryl Kroyer, and Vince D'Aliesio said the site looked good but felt it was not sufficiently easy to subscribe to the newsletter. They suggested a simple, large Subscribe button be added. Ms. Orozco said that she would look at making suggested changes. This is new and she appreciated feedback. Vice Mayor John Crane asked if COINS would continue to exist. Ms. Orozco replied that it is separate from this and would continue to exist. Those who are already subscribed to COINS will continue to receive it.
Mayor Peterson asked Ms.Orozco to demonstrate the Water Acquisition section, which was shown as a bar at the top of the page. This section has all the information on the Water Acquisition Project to date, and it will continue to be updated throughout the process.
Vice Mayor Crane called it "a vast improvement to what we had", and added, "Well done." Ms. Kroyer noted that there is a lot to building a website, with all the information needing to be input, and commented that Ms. Orozco had spent the last 6 months on this project. Ms. Orozco agreed, and noted that websites are a great tool to communicate and to help residents and businesses get the knowledge and information they need about the town. This is an ongoing project, and the Town will continue to update it and to accept feedback to make it more accessible to everyone who needs it.
Mr. Hatcher asked if there is a section with videos. Ms. Orozco said she worked with a drone contractor and got some great footage, but the files are large and the website capacity is limited for compatibility with phones and i Pads, however, the Town has a YouTube channel to showcase meetings and events. Click the YouTube icon to access the channel, where videos will be housed and/or live-streamed. Mr. Hatcher very much liked the ideal of incorporating aerial views.
https://vimeo.com/601482073
Lyn Hitchon
Prepared by Carefree Truth
Copyrighted
Visit our website at www.carefreetruth2.com If you know anyone who would like to be added to the Carefree Truth email list, please have them contact me. Feel free to share Carefree Truth with others on your list.
Visit www.carefreeazbusinesses.com to see more info about businesses in Carefree. Please support our merchants.