Town begins planning CivicPlus website refresh, eyes consolidating satellite pages

Town staff told the Municipal Technology Committee that the Town of Southborough will begin a website refresh process with vendor CivicPlus this fall, with an initial kickoff expected around October.

Jay, a town staff member leading the vendor engagement, said the October meetings will be used to identify upgrades, assign a project manager, and set a schedule; the actual technical work and rollout would follow over subsequent months. He noted the refresh is a multi-step process, beginning with vendor kickoff conversations to scope features and identify necessary migrations.

Committee members discussed whether to consolidate satellite websites—such as the senior center, recreation, and other committee pages—into the main CivicPlus site. The senior center’s site was highlighted as a near-term candidate because its maintainer retired and the page is effectively stagnant. Jay and Hassan reported they will work with the senior center to migrate content and train staff on CivicPlus.

The committee also noted CivicPlus contracts typically have a three-year refresh cycle and encouraged members to collect department preferences and one-off questions to include in the kickoff. Jay and the chair agreed to inventory town web properties and collaborate on a migration plan and timeline ahead of the vendor kickoff.

Next steps: staff will begin scheduling CivicPlus kickoff meetings in the fall, committee members will solicit department input on desired features, and the MTC chair will produce an inventory of town websites for review.