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Watertown unveils new website and mobile app with translation and notification features
Summary
City staff introduced a new municipal website and companion mobile app that include improved search, events calendar, auto translation (Spanish and Hmong), and push notifications; staff encouraged downloads and feedback on hot‑button links.
City communications staff demonstrated a new city website and companion mobile app that went live at the end of March and is now being promoted to residents and stakeholders.
Lisa Familaro, meeting communications director, explained the platform change and said the site went live March 31 on a new vendor platform. The new site retains department pages and adds features the city highlighted: an events calendar that auto‑populates meetings, a longer‑form news feed for press releases, improved search and an automatic translation feature offering Spanish, English and Hmong via Google Translate.
“There's no greater improvement than the app,” Familaro said in effect, walking council members through the hot buttons administrators can add (utility payments, meeting notices and a weekly newsletter signup). She noted the vendor supports push notifications and an app presence on Apple and Android stores.
Council members tested search indexing and reported Google indexing had improved since the prior week. Staff asked for suggestions for commonly used “hot button” links such as the most recent edition of the City Connection newsletter.
There was no formal vote; staff asked council for feedback and said they would continue refining the site and app settings for notifications and language options.
