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Laurel communications committee vets Delmarva Digital website redesign, prioritizes security and governance
Summary
At a May 7 meeting, the Town of Laurel Communications Committee reviewed a proposal from Delmarva Digital to modernize the municipal website, focusing on the vendor's security credentials, a custom content-management system, role-based publishing controls and a set of next steps including a vendor cost estimate.
On May 7, 2026, the Town of Laurel Communications Committee met with Delmarva Digital to discuss a proposal to modernize the town website, emphasizing security, governance of posting privileges and improved navigation.
Delmarva Digital told the committee it has nearly 30 years of experience building sites for small businesses, large e-commerce operations and government entities and said that its security qualifications have led to awards for sensitive-data work in Delaware, including ethics and accountability sites. The vendor recommended a custom content-management system rather than off-the-shelf platforms such as WordPress, Joomla or Drupal, arguing a bespoke CMS can reduce common security and maintenance risks and offer simple WYSIWYG editing for routine updates.
Committee Chairman George Lodato and other members focused on who would be allowed to publish content and how to limit liability. The vendor and committee cautioned against broad publishing access, citing password hygiene as a major vulnerability, and recommended limiting administrator accounts to a small number of trusted town staff (the vendor noted two administrators is commonly used for redundancy). Delmarva Digital described technical controls available, including role-based permissions, activity logging and submission queues that would require administrator approval before content goes live.
The committee discussed distributing content responsibilities to department staff rather than centralizing posting with the town manager. Members expressed interest in allowing community organizations to submit calendar items that would enter an approval queue; the committee must decide whether submissions require verification and what contact information is needed for approval.
Delmarva Digital also recommended using Google Analytics to track internal usage metrics such as view counts and growth over time; the vendor framed analytics as an internal measurement tool rather than a public-facing metric.
As next steps the committee agreed to: (1) provide the vendor with a structure of anticipated pages and menus to refine scope; (2) define which departments will own monthly reports and whether they will post directly or route through an administrator; (3) confirm a security model and the number of administrator accounts to be allowed; (4) decide on submission workflow and verification requirements for community calendar items; (5) draft a simple homepage focusing on bill pay, news/events and a calendar; (6) ask the vendor to prepare a preliminary cost range and identify scope drivers that could change price ahead of the next council discussion; and (7) review reference sites the vendor suggested (for example, Georgetown municipal and Milford Police sites) as style and functionality examples.
The committee recorded the discussion; the vendor will return with a ballpark cost and timing estimate and the town will provide details on pages and content owners before the item is scheduled for council consideration.
