Jones County debuts new website


When you first visit www.jonescountyiowa.gov, this is the look of the new homepage. One new feature is a smart search bar, as well as quick links to pay property taxes or view county board meeting agendas.

This, in particular, is the County Attorney’s page on the new website. You’ll notice new emails for county officials (along the left-hand side), as well as contact information.
By: 
Kim Brooks
Express Editor

     If you visit the Jones County website (jonescountyiowa.gov), you’ll notice a new look.

     The new county website went live on Dec. 10, after a couple of months of discussion, design, and fine-tuning.

     The project was led by County IT Coordinator Lisa Mootz.

     “I had a great committee to work with,” Mootz praised.

     The committee included: County Supervisors Jon Zirkelbach and Joe Oswald, County Auditor Janine Sulzner, 911 Coordinator Gary Schwab, JETS Manager Jamie Ginter, County Engineer Derek Snead, GIS Coordinator Kristi Aitchison, Recorder Sheri Jones, Sheriff’ Department Office Manager Lori Jess, and Jennifer Koopmann and Michele Olson with Conservation.

     Back in early October, Mootz shared two quotes from two different companies she reached out to for help creating a new countywide website. Those base estimates were $19,000 and $25,000. Despite a more expensive base bid, Neapolitan Labs in Des Moines was the cheapest in the long run considering the annual $1,500 maintenance fee.

     The idea to revamp and completely redo the county’s website stemmed from a variety of reasons. First, the previous website was not ADA compliant.

     “I had no idea,” admitted Mootz.

     A website is deemed ADA compliant, for instance, when someone who is blind visits the site and the information is read aloud to them on the screen. The technology used to develop the new website is equipped to do this if needed.

     The previous site was also not mobile friendly.

     “It needs to be viewed on any and all mobile devices,” Mootz said, noting that the majority of people will likely visit the county’s website on their phones.

     In addition, there were complaints from the public that certain things were hard to find on the site, and it was not user friendly.

     Behind the scenes, Mootz was contacted by a couple of department heads a few months ago when their pages were a different color.

     “Someone logged on to edit the site and ended up changing the entire site,” Mootz said.

     With the new site, departments heads, with the exception of Mootz, only have access to their particular pages to make changes.

     When you first visit the homepage, you’ll notice fly-over footage of various sites around the county. That footage was courtesy of Sheriff Greg Graver via his drone. Some of the sites include Central Park and Stone City.

     The website committee met once a week since October, either with representatives from Neapolitan Labs or amongst themselves with department heads.

     “We met with every office and department,” Mootz said, wanting input from everyone on what should be included in the new site.

     In terms of what should be included in the site, first and foremost was a search bar.

     “That was huge,” Mootz said of the top of the list.

     The search tool is “smart,” meaning if you start typing a word, such as “court,” it will give you suggestions like “Pay court fines online” or “Clerk of Court.”

     “It gives you various options as type,” explained Mootz.

     The homepage also contains quick links to such items as meeting agendas and minutes, or renewing your driver’s license. Mootz said following an election, a quick link could be added for ease of accessing election results.

     Another new feature is “news and announcements” on the homepage. Here, users will find helpful links such as upcoming county events, or the county’s latest COVID-19 notices.

     The county landfill and Clerk of Court also have their own pages, something they didn’t have before.

     Changing the site and having their own domain (.gov), county employees’ emails also changed. Be sure to visit the website for the proper email address.

     “We can also schedule posts now, which makes it more efficient for all departments,” added Mootz.

     If a certain department has a job opening, they can post it online and schedule the post to come down at the end of the application period.

     Other new features include:

     • Department, elected officials, and services directory

     • FAQ

     • Information about each city/town in Jones County.

     “Neapolitan has been fantastic to work with on this,” noted Mootz. She said company representatives took the time to meet with every department to find out what they wanted included on their pages.

     For ideas, the website committee visited other county websites to see what was unique or not needed.

     “We wanted to showcase what was unique about our cities,” Mootz said, showing images from each community on the site.

     Eventually, Mootz plans to add information about each school district, including Kirkwood.

     Users will also notice a new county logo in the upper left-hand side of the homepage. That was designed by Neapolitan Labs, with input from the committee.

     “We started with the Jones County flag,” Mootz said, and branched off from there.

     The logo contains a Ferris wheel representing the fair, trees representing natural resources, a barn representing the local agricultural industry, and a house with the famous Grant Wood window representing the history of Stone City.

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