VALATIE–The Kinderhook Town Board has awarded Town Web Designs a contract to redesign the town’s website. There will be a one-time cost for design of $7,999 and a yearly cost of $2,700 for the company to host the site.
Former Board member Peter Bujanow worked with the board to find the company. The board put out a request for proposal last winter. They met with two companies–Town Web Designs and Virtual Towns, the company that designed the current town website.
At the Monday, April 3 meeting, Mr. Bujanow reviewed the two different companies and the cost for the services. Virtual Towns proposed charging $12,995 for design and $2,195 annually to host the site. The board discussed staff training options, which included unlimited video conference trainings with Town Web Design.
Mr. Bujanow said that Town Web Designs was also offering unlimited storage for the town’s data and would help put recordings of the town board meetings online. He said that the company would like a three-year contract and now that the board had made the decision to work with the company, Mr. Bujanow would move forward with negotiating the final details of a contract.
Town Web Designs also offers a free upgrade every three years. Mr. Bujanow said that the Wisconsin company was eager to work with the town. “This would be a premiere account for them,” he said.
“If Virtual Towns had free upgrades we wouldn’t be here,” said Councilman Tim Ooms of going with the new company instead the old web designers.
Mr. Bujanow said he would also talk to other town departments and boards, like the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals, about what they want on the site. He told the board, “If you like, I will manage the process.”
The board members and Supervisor Pat Grattan thanked Mr. Bujanow for his work and agreed that he should continue. According to the breakdown that Mr. Bujanow shared with the board, the company is planning to have the website up in 12 to 16 weeks.
Also at the meeting, Mr. Grattan said he was still working with residents on Wildflower Road about paving the private dirt road at the property owners’ expense. If the road is paved, it can become a town road and be maintained by the town’s DPW. Mr. Grattan said he had come up with “some figures for doing the improvements.” He said the board will host another special meeting with residents in the future.
He also said that changes to the town’s solar energy equipment zoning laws would have to be looked at by the town’s Codes Committee, which reviews zoning laws, and the town’s Planning Board before coming before the Town Board for approval. He said that the town board would host a public hearing on the changes in the solar laws later this year, possibly in June.
The board ended the meeting with a moment of silence for Susan Caponera who died in late February. Mrs. Caponera was on the town’s Board of Assessment Review. The board appointed her husband Ronald Caponera to her seat on the review board her term.
The next Town Board meeting will be Monday, May 1 at 7 p.m. at the Martin H. Glynn Municipal Building.
To contact reporter Emilia Teasdale email eteasdale@columbiapaper.com.