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Town Administrator announces $32,000 homeland-security grant, website overhaul and sustainability coordinator posting
Summary
The Town Administrator told Jamestown council that the town secured $32,000 in homeland-security grants for cybersecurity, has posted a sustainability coordinator role (six applicants) and is exploring a multi-stage website replacement to improve mobile access, cybersecurity and resident reporting.
The Town Administrator told the Jamestown Town Council that the town was awarded homeland-security grants totaling $32,000 to fund two cybersecurity-related applications, crediting the effort to the police chief, the captain and town IT lead. The administrator said the funds will support cybersecurity initiatives the town has been seeking to finance.
The administrator also said council had supported a sustainability coordinator in the current fiscal budget and that the town received six applications for that task-based position. "This will be kind of a project task based position, not necessarily a staff position where it's gonna be office hours," the Town Administrator said, describing the role as focused on discrete initiatives such as grant-seeking, reporting and analysis.
On the town website, the administrator described the current platform as a legacy system in place for about a decade and said the council is exploring replacement options tailored to small municipalities. The administrator emphasized cybersecurity and mobile usability and warned that the current site "lists everybody's email address. You you shouldn't do that" — a practice the town seeks to eliminate to reduce phishing risk. Early mock-ups shown to council included a simple "early voting information" feature and a resident-feedback button for complaints, compliments or service requests.
The administrator outlined the internal reporting process for service requests: submissions are triaged internally and routed to the appropriate department (Aileen was identified as the staff member who triages reports). The administrator said the website work is not a short-term project and will take several months to implement; staff will explore vendors, functionality for mobile platforms and options for a community-event calendar that could integrate postings from the Chamber of Commerce.
Why it matters: Improvements to cybersecurity, a clearer resident-reporting mechanism and a streamlined website affect how residents access meeting materials, register for town services and report public-works issues. The sustainability coordinator role, if filled, will support targeted projects and grant applications rather than provide full-time office coverage.
Next steps: The Town Administrator said staff will continue evaluating vendors and prioritize cybersecurity and mobile access; the sustainability coordinator hiring process will proceed with the six applicants under consideration.
