McCandless launches new interactive website to engage with residents

McCandless has created a new way for residents to communicate with town officials and get up-to-date information about local issues.

Dubbed McCandless and Me, the new website is aimed at providing an alternative to attending public meetings or sending written requests for information, which officials say can be time-consuming, inconvenient and intimidating to some people.

“We wanted to find new ways to have meaningful dialogue with the public,” said town manager Bob Grimm. “It’s important to us to find out what residents and businesses think about town matters. We want to know what their opinions and viewpoints are so we can better shape policy moving forward.”

While residents don’t have to sign up to view the site, they will need to provide contact details to send or receive information.

The website currently features details about the recently proposed ordinance regulating the keeping of chickens on private property as well as information on Halloween trick-or-treating and polling locations for the upcoming election.

The site also will be used to conduct surveys, question-and-answer sessions and to post things such as interactive maps and video illustrations.

Links to the town’s official web page and contact information for the McCandless and Me moderators also are on the site along with a section titled “What the Fact?!” that allows residents to get accurate information about rumors circulating in the community.

“Everything we do should be focused on improving the quality of life for each and every citizen,” Grimm said. “And an important part of the quality of life is having a voice in their government.”

He said the new platform’s interactive features provide town officials with a tool to “listen to our citizens, answer their questions, have conversations about varied topics and be a reliable source of information to the public.”

RJ Susko, the town’s planning director, said McCandless and Me is not meant to be a replacement for the town’s official website or other forms of communication used by the municipality, which includes several social media accounts, the McMail monthly electronic newsletter and the Savvy Citizen alert app.

“It’s not a replacement for the town website, which provides static information – this is an opportunity for us to engage more with the public,” Susko said.