Vandergrift Borough’s website went offline sometime last weekend, but there are no concrete plans at this time to replace it.
Visitors to the site will now see a message in huge font reading, “This site is no longer being updated or maintained. If you have any questions or suggestions, please call the Vandergrift Borough.” Clicking on any links to additional pages on the site leads to a blank “log in” screen.
On Tuesday, Borough Secretary Steve DelleDonne said the person maintaining the website resigned. Since stopping use of the site was not a formal decision by council, DelleDonne said there aren’t concrete plans to begin searching for a new web designer or contractor to build a new site. He said council members may begin that process in the future, though.
“We’d like to have a website maintained, but I’m not sure when they’ll bring this matter up,” he said.
The site had been updated fairly infrequently and had been a topic of debate among council members in the last year.
During a council meeting in March 2020, Solicitor Larry Loperfito recommended borough members hire an “insured” web designer to recreate the site and establish a new email system.
Though council members have borough emails, the messages were being sent to their personal email addresses, which presented a legal issue.
Council members decided to create a Facebook page last June to announce borough news and events. DelleDonne said the borough will be giving updates on community matters on that Facebook page for the time being.
However, there is more than one Facebook page labeled as that of Vandergrift Borough. It’s difficult for users to know which one is active — but none of them have been updated for at least several months. The most recent update to one page was in September 2020, about five months ago.
Though the website wasn’t updated very frequently, either, some residents worry the lack of a site could pose a barrier to people looking for standard forms, meeting minutes and other documents that are typically available online.
“It’s not a good situation to not have something for residents to have access to certain things,” said Marilee Kessler, organization chair of the Vandergrift Improvement Program.
Jim Dunmire, a Vandergrift resident, noted that finding information without a reliable website is especially difficult during the covid-19 pandemic and the corresponding safety restrictions, when it’s difficult for people to visit the borough office.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous that the borough does not have an official website that is properly maintained and taken care of,” Dunmire said. “There’s absolutely no excuse for it.”
DelleDonne said borough residents can call him with any questions about borough information they might normally get from the website.
