Website Policy

Middletown Springs will use its official municipal website to serve long-term, seasonal, new and potential residents and other visitors: connecting them to town government, community information, events and important factual information.

The website will include:

  • Easy to find and retrieve municipal information such as meeting schedules, official announcements, minutes, policies, plans, bylaws, emergency contact information, etc.
  • Access to complete and clear answers to frequently asked questions.
  • Contact information for town officials
  • Printable PDF’s for basic town forms and transactions.
  • Access to a comprehensive community calendar, local business information and local organizations.
  • Links to important regional and state websites.

Goals and Objectives

Middletown Springs has identified the following strategic goals and objectives for the website.

Goal 1 – Ensure the quality and ease-of-use of the municipal website.

  • Objective 1a — Make it easy to find the most used or requested information.
  • Objective 1b — Establish a governance process for posting of content in a timely and accurate manner.

Goal 2 – Make it easy for users to get municipal information.

  • Objective 2a — Online calendar listing all public meetings & Town Office hours.
  • Objective 2b — All meeting minutes online in a timely manner.
  • Objective 2c — Online access to official municipal documents such as Town Plan, Town Report, budget, deeds, land records, etc.
  • Objective 2d — Make it easy to contact municipal officials & emergency personnel.

Goal 3 – Provide 24 hour access to important municipal information.

  • Objective 3a — Provide online forms where possible and information needed for various licenses and registrations.

Goal 4 – Make it clear that Middletown Springs’ municipal website is the official website for the town of Middletown Springs.

  • Objective 4a — Use www.MiddletownSprings.vt.gov as the official website domain name.
  • Objective 4b — Middletown Springs’s official municipal website will be separate from the Middletown Springs Library, Middletown Springs School, and other town organizations’ websites to ensure clear governance structures.

Goal 5 – To utilize the website for community development and connections.

  • Objective 5a – The Middletown Springs website will foster community development by making connections between people, local business, organizations and town government.

Website Management and Governance

  • No advertising will be allowed on Middletown Springs’s website to avoid any conflict of interest issues.
  • Ensure continuity of operations during emergencies; develop emergency procedures.
  • Avoid redundant content on the site.
  • Create operating procedures to manage the site and all the functions that support it: everyone in the governance structure knows and understands the policies and procedures.
  • Establish responsibilities for each person that is involved with the website: everyone should know and understand their roles and be accountable for their content areas.
  • Establish a policy for content approval with roles for staff that will approve and manage content.
  • Management controls identified to ensure the town’s website and web operations are protected from fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement, and the controls are reviewed regularly.
  • The town website will not host pages for community organizations, but can link to them.
  • Establish a linking policy.  Add a disclaimer stating that Middletown Springs is not responsible for another website’s content.
  • Establish a privacy policy that states what information is collected when a user visits the site.
  • Website will be fully-accessible/handicap accessible.

Roles and Responsibilities

Website Administrator  – Determines high-level technical tasks such as website configuration changes, programming, and working with contractors on website enhancements.

Town Website Management Committee  – made up of Town Librarian, Select Board member, Planning commission member and members at large.

Website Content Manager  – Review and approve website content.  Ensure compliance with website content guidelines.

Town Librarian, (Kimberly Mathewson)

Town Clerk, (Laura Castle)

Content Editors  – Edit web pages and submit content changes and additions to the Content Managers for review/approval and posting to the website.

Town Officials (Clerk, Treasurer, Listers, Auditors, BCA)

Select Board Chair/Clerk

School Board Chair/Clerk

Chair or designee from various town organizations, commissions and committees

Content Management Guidelines

  • Content must be approved by Content Manager before posting.
  • Ensure content is current and accurate.
  • Organize content based on audience needs.
  • Follow handicapped accessibility guidelines for text and images.
  • Write for the Web in plain language.
  • Documents posted as PDFs
  • Use appropriate image resolutions and format for the web.
  • Avoid clutter on the home page.
  • Use basic common content, terminology and placement.
      • Contact Us page (contact information)
      • About Us page (organization information)
      • Site map or A to Z index
      • Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Proposed Content for Middletown Springs Website

[in no particular order]

  • Town committees [Planning, Conservation, Energy, etc.]
  • Town officers [Clerk, Treasurer, Selectboard members, Listers, Auditors, Trustees of Public Monies, Road Commissioner, Library Trustees, and other elected town officials]
  • Select Board information  [Members, Agenda, Minutes, Info, Protocols, etc.]
  • Ordinances and Policies
  • Emergency information/ Emergency Management Plan
  • Reports
  • Forms
  • Meeting agendas and minutes
  • Announcements
  • Events calendar
  • Deeds and Land records
  • Links to other Middletown Springs sites (Library, School, FrontPorch Forum)
  • Town history
  • Pay taxes, fines and license fees with printable forms
  • Middletown Springs businesses [list & links]
  • Town Organizations [list & links]
  • Recreation  [Springs Park, Sullivan Woods, Bone Builders, etc.]
  • Solid Waste Management / Transfer Station information and schedules
  • Town Meeting / Election Information
  • Property Tax information
  • Maps [parcel, flood plain, historic district, etc.]
  • Visiting Middletown Springs / Moving to Middletown Springs