SILVERTHORNE – This week, the Town of Silverthorne launches its inaugural Silverthorne Signal e-newsletter, which is integrated into a redesigned website that launched in mid-September.

The Nov/Dec 2010 e-newsletter is now live and available by visiting http://www.silverthorne.org, clicking on “town services” and selecting “newsletter” on the drop-down menu.

Since its launch, the new website is already playing a vital role in the Town’s online communications, town spokesman Ryan Hyland said.

The site, redesigned and developed by Vision Internet for $55,000, provides pertinent municipal information as well as giving citizens access to updated activity information, events, news feeds and more. Vision Internet was also the creator of the existing Town of Breckenridge site.

Visitors can access the site to use it as a portal to the town’s four social media sites, Hyland said, adding that it can enhance a visitor’s experience by staying connected with what’s happening around town.

“The feedback we’ve received so far is that the site looks great and people are finding it easy to use,” Hyland said. “One of the things we wanted to accomplish with the redesign was to bring three of our most popular amenities front and center on the homepage. The Recreation Center, Pavilion and Blue River each now have a prominent presence there.”

Hyland touted new features such as video viewing, recieving RSS feeds from the news page and site visitors adding calendar items directly to their Outlook calendars from the website. There’s also the option to sign up for automatic e-mail subscriptions for agendas, newsletters and recreation brochures, he said.

New economic development information and a local business directory are also now included online, Hyland said. He added that Vision Internet’s software makes it easy for town staff to update web content.

Though there’s plenty of new features to explore, some things have stayed the same. Planning commission and town council meeting packets are still available in PDF format. They’re posted online the Friday prior to a meeting.

Silverthorne had a website from 2002 that had outdated design and functionality, Hyland said. When officials opted to do the redesign, they selected Vision Internet from 16 competitive proposals.

“We are still tweaking various aspects of the site and over time, thanks to the easy to use content management system, we will continue to add features and additional content to the site,” Hyland said.

SDN reporter Janice Kurbjun can be contacted at (970) 668-4630 or at jkurbjun@summitdaily.com.