MACHIAS, Maine — The Town of Machias has gone into cyberspace, joining about 325 municipalities in Maine that have their own websites.
Machias’ new site, http://machiasme.org/, launched Friday, Town Manager Christina Therrien said Wednesday afternoon.
“I don’t think many people really know that it’s there yet,” she said.
Eric Conrad, spokesman for the Maine Municipal Association, said about 325 out of Maine’s 491 municipalities have websites and it’s not always the larger municipalities that have them.
“There’s some awfully small ones that do,” he said.
He said a municipal website is a sign that officials are attempting to be forthcoming with residents.
“We wouldn’t be having websites if they were trying to hide something,” Conrad said.
He said Machias’ website represents “a step forward” for the town.
“We’re glad to see Machias is doing this,” he said.
In the last five years, Conrad said, 70 or 80 municipalities have joined social media. This has been particularly effective for police and public works departments.
“Ellsworth has had great success with their police page [on Facebook],” Conrad said, adding that in some cases, an arrest had been made within minutes of a post.
Therrien said she and volunteer Annmarie Evans are still working on some pages of the Machias website, which has been under construction since November 2015.
She said Evans has been a “tremendous help,” interacting with Axiom Technologies to design, build and proof the pages so Therrien could concentrate on other work.
“[Evans] speaks both English and computer,” Therrien quipped.
The Machias website includes more than 50 different pages offering information about such items as meeting agendas, meeting minutes, forms, contact information for officials, the town report and town statistics as well as links to projects and community businesses and organizations.
“I hope it provides information to residents and people looking to visit,” Therrien said.