Sigourney council approves $9,500 website contract with Drive Technologies

The Sigourney City Council voted July 2 to hire Drive Technologies to design and build a new City of Sigourney website that the vendor says will meet WCAG 2.2 accessibility standards. The contract approved by the council carries a one-time fee of $9,500 and passed on a unanimous roll-call vote.

The vendor, Humphrey Mwangi of Drive Technologies, presented an 11-week project plan and a cost breakdown: $7,000 for design and development, $2,000 for accessibility testing, and $500 for training and launch support. He said recurring costs would include $200 per month for maintenance and $400 annually for hosting; he requested half of the one-time fee ($4,750) up front. Council member Schultz moved to approve the $9,500 fee, and Council member Conrad seconded; the motion passed with Ayes from Lentz, Schultz, Clark, Conrad and McLaughlin.

City Clerk Angie K. Alderson said the city would use Local Option Sales and Services Tax (LOST) dollars for the one-time payment and would budget monthly maintenance and hosting in future budgets. Council members asked about platform longevity and whether staff would be trained to edit pages; Mr. Mwangi said he would train current staff and could provide ongoing updates as part of the maintenance agreement.

The council did not adopt a separate ongoing contract at the meeting beyond approving the one-time development fee; the vendor outlined an approach analogous to frequently updated commercial platforms and committed to provide training to city staff. The council expects the vendor to follow the proposed eleven-week timeline and to work with staff during setup.