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Town of Franklin's New Website

Posted on: October 20, 2016 - 11:01am

Welcome to franklinma.gov! 

 

We welcome you to the new website for the Town of Franklin, Massachusetts.  We thank you for visiting and hope some of the new features increase communication between your town government and the citizens and visitors of Franklin.  We believe this new site will expand the customer service options to our residents and businesses.

 

This announcement is to highlight just a few of the major highlights of the new site.  The Town hopes you will offer any feedback and ideas and frequently return to the site as new features and content will be added frequently by town departments, boards, committees and news.  The Town views its website as a constant work in progress to better the effectiveness of what we do for its citizens. The project is never done, but will constantly evolve as technology evolves and as customer demand evolves. 

 

Here are a few of the new features:

 

  • New mobile, smart phone capability.  The old site did not have a mobile setting. Now when you go to the site on a mobile phone, the site will adjust its settings to make it more user friendly on phones and tablets.
  • Email subscription pages for Town Council agendas and roll calls, all legal notices and public hearings, job postings, the Franklin Connection Senior newsletter, Recreation department programs, urgent alerts and many more. Anyone can subscribe to email lists to get notices on those topics and more;
  • A new GIS and Maps page focusing on the wealth of GIS services the town has, including interactive databases of all property records and many maps that may of interest to the public. Franklin is fortunate to have one of the best GIS departments and hope to highlight these resources more;
  • Franklin Development site filled with demographic, social-economic data on the town and a listing of commercial and industrial properties for rent or sale in Town.  Franklin Dev is a new marketing tool to attract more investment in business in the community as a one stop shop for the information they need to make the best decision for their business;
  • A new one stop shop for all social media accounts for the town and schools;
  • Revamped, more inclusive Town Calendar with auto uploads to smart phones and RSS feeds;
  • A new Town Council web page with features on subcommittees, licensing and more;
  • A “Meet me in Franklin” page that highlights some of the unique places of interest to visit in Franklin;
  • Town Blog for all the latest news (which is also an option by email notification);
  • An ever changing rotation of pictures of Franklin throughout the site;
  • Enhanced search capabilities, both on the site and via Google;
  • New customer service request forms for various town services;
  • And much more...

 

The website is the beginning of what will hope to be a series of new projects and features to expand civic engagement online:

 

  • Social Media: The first task was to strengthen our social media presence.  Since January 2016, the Town’s social media followers have nearly quadrupled and will be featured in the next edition of the Mass Municipal Association’s newsletter “The Beacon” for having innovative social media sites.  Stay tuned for that article on our site and social media.  

 

  • Website: The second task was to rebrand the Town’s website to help residents conduct their business with Town Hall online and to market the community to the world. 

 

  • Google: Third, the town offices are expected to convert from a very old email network based system to the Google apps suite in early 2017. The School Department has already started the transition two years ago with the new high school and the Town will begin to embrace cloud technology to enhance employee collaboration and efficiency, as well as coordination with the features on the new website.

 

  • E-Permitting:  the Town hopes to pilot new cloud technology for all permitting, licensing and other town services online with its own online payment center.  We hope to begin this pilot in 2017 and look toward staggered implementation by department over the course of the end of 2017 and into 2018.