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Communications director recommends website refresh with local vendor; ADA compliance and branding discussed
Summary
The communications director presented two proposals from Reach to refresh the city website, recommended the larger Reach package over an external CivicPlus option, and flagged a 2027 ADA compliance deadline; councilors asked to budget the work in the next fiscal year and suggested issuing an RFQ for branding.
Mara, the city’s communications director, told the Finance Committee the administration has solicited quotes to refresh the municipal website and is recommending continuing with Reach, the town’s current local website host, rather than switching to a different vendor.
“I’m the communications director. Nice to meet you,” Mara said as she opened her presentation, which included two Reach proposals: a lower-cost refresh that relies more on in-house updates and a larger implementation package priced at roughly $10,050. Mara said Reach currently hosts the site for about $129 per month and offered both a smaller home-page redesign and a fuller implementation option.
Mara said the city compared Reach’s proposals with a CivicPlus implementation used by another municipality; she said Bangor’s recent CivicPlus rebuild cost roughly $53,000–$54,000 and carries an annual uplift clause. By contrast, Mara and IT recommended the Reach $10,050 option as a pragmatic local choice that would be “one and done” while keeping the city’s WordPress-based site manageable for staff updates.
The communications director also flagged the city’s obligation to make the website ADA-compliant by 2027 and said Reach’s package includes an accessibility plug-in option. Mara recommended issuing a request for qualifications for branding work first and then budgeting the website redesign in the next fiscal year.
Councilors reacted positively to using a local vendor and to the larger Reach package because of prior responsiveness; one member said the $10,050 option would avoid a long multi-year redesign process. The Finance Committee noted the price is under the city’s $15,000 purchasing threshold and would not require formal council approval if funded within staff limits; Mara said she planned to present the budget request for the next fiscal year.
Members of the public who spoke supported a refresh and urged continued emphasis on findability and user experience; one audience member noted the 2016 redesign improved the site but said some items remain hard to find. Mara said recent election-related materials (including Tina’s consolidation comment card) have been posted to the site under the Elections page.
No formal procurement or contract award occurred at the meeting. Mara asked the committee to note the recommendation and to consider funding the work in FY 2026.
