Granville website getting ADA conversion
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GRANVILLE - Town council voted Tuesday to move forward with one project while putting another off until spring.
The Department of Justice requires local government websites and mobile apps to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 Level AA standards.
Large municipalities serving a population of 50,000 had to comply by this past April. Smaller ones - serving fewer than 50,000 - have until April 26, 2027.
To be in compliance, sites must support keyboard navigation, provide text alternatives for images, ensure high color contrast and make downloadable documents such as PDFs screen-reader friendly.
Granville falls in the smaller category and, to save money, council voted to switch companies that will handle its website. The town has been using Sparks Media Agency to run and update its site as needed. For Sparks to get the Granville website up to ADA standards, it would cost the town $29,000, according to Mayor Patricia Lewis.
"Another company can take what's there now and convert it to make it ADA-compliant for less than $3,000," the mayor said during a previous town council meeting. She explained that is because that company, CivicPlus, specializes in municipal websites and already has the programming in place to just switch over Granville's current site. Sparks would have to write the program that would bring the site into compliance, essentially building it from scratch, Lewis said.
Once the site is in compliance, a yearly fee would go to CivicPlus for updating and maintaining it. That fee would go from $7,800 to $11,000 over three years, Lewis previously said.
On Tuesday, Lewis said she spoke with a representative from Sparks Media again to verify the cost difference and was told there is more work to do for Sparks to make the changes. Whereas CivicPlus already has municipal clients, including Morgantown, Fairmont and Mannington.
Council voted unanimously to make the switch and Lewis said she'd have the town lawyers look over the contract with CivicPlus before signing it.
Council also voted unanimously to put a new town hall roof on hold for several months.
In July, council approved putting the roof project out to bid. Lewis said then that the roof needed to be replaced on town hall and said council should consider shingles rather than another metal roof, estimating it would be "well over $50,000."
Council decided to include an awning on the back of the building in the bid package. The police department is housed in that part of the building and Lewis said the awning would be for police vehicles.
"It would be to keep the police dogs out of the heat and the cruisers out of the elements," she said then.
On Tuesday, Lewis said Joe Dinkel, project engineer/manager and GIS coordinator with Potesta and Associates, would have everything ready to put the project out for bid by the end of this week. However, she said, there are issues to consider when deciding when to start the replacement work.
Lewis said as Dinkel was getting specifications together for the project, it was discovered there is no plywood under one portion of the metal roof toward the back of the building.
"We would probably have to take the roof off and vacate the building for a couple of weeks," Lewis said. "Joe thinks we may want to wait until spring."
The mayor said there are two concerns to consider. One is a leak that should be addressed and the other is an increase in costs if companies bidding on the roof project are asked to move Granville ahead of other projects already on their lists.
The metal roof was put on 12-13 years ago and the company that did that work is now out of business, Lewis said.
Council voted to go with Dinkel's recommendation to fix the leak now but hold off on replacing the roof.
Lewis said she would provide an update on the bidding process at the next council meeting, which is set for 7 p.m. Oct. 13.