Cape city council to vote on new website management and design

With the approval of the city council tonight, Cape Girardeau's website could look a little different in the near future.

The council will consider an agreement with Reliance Communications LLC for the design, management and support of a new website.

This agreement follows months of work by the city to determine how the website should be improved and how it could expand online services. Update or redesign of the website has been included in the city's recent five-year Capital Improvements Program for a few years, said public information manager Nicolette Brennan.

Cape Girardeau's website serves 800 people per weekday, according to the city, including current and potential city residents, businesses, visitors, employees and others. The new platform would improve organization and be more mobile-friendly, among other things.

Reliance was chosen by a core content managers group consisting of employees from city hall and the fire, police, parks and recreation and public works departments. The group vetted eight vendor products submitted as part of a request for proposals, selecting five finalists. Those finalists then presented their portfolios and services to the group and provided an opportunity to try out the software in a test environment.

Reliance was the only company identified as the first or second choice of all evaluators, according to the staff report submitted as part of Monday's council packet.

The one-year cost for the website and related services will be approximately $45,000, with annual maintenance and support priced at $7,000. The city's innovation fund and operating budget are identified as funding sources for the project in the most recent Capital Improvements Program.

"Should the council approve the resolution Monday, the city manager can sign a contract with the service provider," Brennan said in an email. "We will work with our internal web team and new vendor-partner over the next few months to deliver the site by June 30, 2016."

Other business

The council will also decide whether the city should enter into a second supplemental design services agreement with Koehler Engineering for the Independence Street and Gordonville Road intersection. The second agreement is necessary, according to the copy of the agreement included in the council packet, "to update delivery milestones specified in Supplemental Agreement No. 1 which remain to be accomplished due to delays encountered during the course of plan development." The original schedule was "highly compressed," said the staff report, and was based on a "best case scenario" for easement acquisitions and included no time for delays.

The city's initial goal was to award the project and obligate funds by September in order to avoid potentially losing its annual STP Small Urban allocation for the following year.

"It should be noted the city is not at risk at this time of losing our annual STP Small Urban allocation," said the staff report. "Enough expenditures have been spent to bring the city below the threshold of possibly losing our allocation for next year."

The revised milestones -- which now call for the project to go up for bid in March -- have no effect on the costs or services to be provided under the previous agreements, added the report. The cost of the intersection design is a not-to-exceed amount of $57,855.44. It qualifies for 80 percent reimbursement under the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission STP-Urban Program Agreement. The remaining 20 percent will come from Transportation Trust Fund 4 revenue.

srinehart@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Independence Street and Gordonville Road, Cape Girardeau, Mo.