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Visitors to Saratoga's City Hall can now let their fingers do the walking, with a little help from a mouse.
Information on city is now just one mouse click away
By Steve Enders
Saratoga, like so many other cities in California and the United States, has leapt straight into the information age and now has a website to call home.
City Hall was scheduled to go online on Aug. 31, providing citizens and visitors with an abundance of information about the city, its programs and its regulations.
The site was unveiled by Saratoga resident and Boston College sophomore Dan O'Connell and by City Manager Larry Perlin at the last City Council meeting in early August.
The site, located at www.saratoga.ca.us, isn't filled with flashy graphics, sound or movie clips, but it does allow computer users to easily track down valuable information without leaving home. It also provides users with contact information for various city employees and city commissions, including email addresses of city officials.
O'Connell, a former Saratoga High School student, answered the city's call for help months ago when the City Council announced it was looking for volunteers to help design and create the site.
He was actually connected with Perlin the old-fashioned way, through personal contact rather than by email. O'Connell said he went to high school with Parks and Recreation director Joan Pisani's daughter. Pisani knew he was in the freelance business of creating web pages, so she mentioned him to Perlin.
To get the site going, O'Connell sat through meetings and brainstorming sessions with nearly 10 departments to try and get a look and feel for the site.
Sometimes the abundance of ideas was overwhelming and detrimental to getting the project off the ground. Eventually, Perlin and O'Connell worked together directly to expedite the process. What the two came up with in more than two months of work is a smooth-running, quick-loading site that's heavy on information.
"I recommended that we not use too many graphics," O'Connell said. "Nowadays, not too many sites use that many graphics. When I'm sitting at home, I don't want it to take forever for a page to load. People are going to be there looking for information, not flashy graphics."
From the city's new home page, users will be able to access seven different areas, including pages for the City Council, commissions and departments, contact information and statistics about the city itself.
"There's a lot of contact information, and a lot of people are going to be using the site to get Parks and Rec info. The fall activities guide is going to be on there; people are going to be able to get permits online, and the city's heritage book is going to be there," O'Connell said.
Pages from the Saratoga Heritage book are being scanned now. When the link becomes active, photos of Saratoga's historic buildings will be on view for free. The book costs $7 at the city's historical museum or at City Hall.
Some of the real benefits for web users, however, will be in the city permits offered through the website, which would normally have to be picked up at City Hall.
Another bonus to the web-based version of City Hall will be the accessibility of the city's codes. Now, anyone will be able to look at what is and is not legal or allowed throughout the city.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
