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| Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash |
Municipal websites provide a wealth of information for citizens willing to explore what they offer. Though not all local governments display all the data the Massachusetts Public Records Law requires, they contain plenty of useful information that residents can access from their favorite web-connected devices.
Shutesbury’s website is no exception. Some information is easy to find and some requires a bit of digging. I’ve spent a fair amount of time over the past few years researching what Shutesbury.org offers, which is quite a lot. Other Shutesbury residents have also generously shared their knowledge.
Here's a quick tour of Shutesbury's website, from the basics to the more obscure, starting with its homepage.
Homepage
The landing page for Shutesbury.org contains answers to commonly asked questions and links to job postings, information about hazardous waste releases in town, and recycling and trash information, among other things.
The link to the town “Calendar” page displays several weeks’ worth of planned meetings and a link to “MyTownGovernment”, a private site that allows information-seekers to sign up for email alerts regarding upcoming meetings. Residents can sign up for as few or as many board and committee meetings as they like. I learned of this service a few years ago and can attest to its utility.
In addition to listings and alerts for town government meetings, MyTownGovernment lists meetings and agendas for outside agencies, such as the Union 28 School District. The site also allows access to minutes, documents used during a particular meeting, and past meeting listings including their agendas.
On the right-hand side of the homepage and below the heading "Contact Town Officials", are two important sign-up links. One is for the Town Announcement emails, and the other is for Code Red, the town's emergency alert system. Both of these notification systems are extremely useful as they provide valuable information about power outages and other weather-related problems. They also provide updates on road projects and any associated issues. Furthermore, they inform you of any disruptions in the trash and recycling pickup schedule, usually due to trash truck breakdowns.
At the top of every page on Shutesbury.org is a list of options with dropdown lists. Here are some highlights.
Departments
Assessors: Lots of information and links to explore concerning taxes, tax rates, town real estate values, exemptions, property cards, and Geographic Information System data.
Dog Officer: Pertinent information about licensing dogs and the Shutesbury Leash Law (yes, we have one).
Police Department: There are links to the “Shutesbury Police Core Values” page, and to police logs, by year. The police logs page is disappointing as there is very little current information, with only one month’s worth of logs from 2023 and nothing from 2024.
Town Clerk: As you would expect, this page has tons of information and links regarding important issues such as voting, town meetings, policies relating to public officials, the Open Meeting Law, the Public Records Law, and much more.
Meetings
Under this heading, you’ll find links to posted meeting minutes of all boards and committees, links to the meeting Calendars page, and the link to Shutesbury’s YouTube channel, where Zoom meeting recordings are posted.
Services
I strongly recommend you peruse each of these pages as they all have pertinent information for residents and describe much of what our taxes pay for.
Emergency Management: This page has information about and links to CodeRed and Shutesbury’s Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan. NOTE: Though not a part of our town website, I recently found this MA Emergency Management Agency page for power outages, making tracking power restoration in town quick and easy.
Our Town Newsletter: This local news publication sports an end page that lists contact information for town officials–a low-tech reference item that we cut out now and then and tape to the inside of one of the kitchen cabinets. The most recent issue has an insert about creating a “Peace of Mind Binder” that is a real gem.
ShutesburyNET: Loads of information about our popular town broadband service and the perfect place to start if you have questions or concerns.
A few pages contain referral links to other websites, such as the Library, Housing Rehabilitation, Schools, Social and Community Services, and Veterans’ Services.
Town Governance
Interesting topics include links to Annual Reports from 2016 to 2022, Town Bylaws, Town Policies and Guidelines, and a handy Town Organizational Chart.
Town Officials
In addition to listing all Appointed and Elected town officials and their contact information, this tab also shares helpful information and links regarding Legislators and State Offices.
If you’d rather not have to mouse over headings to see the subheadings, clicking on the Site Index at the bottom of any webpage will show you the options in a single-page layout.
Search Tips & Tricks
Like many websites, Shutesbury.org’s search engine is less than robust. I’ve found it helps to be creative when searching the site.
Let’s take an example. I typed “finance” into the white search box and got 14 pages of results. Most were Finance Committee minutes, meaning the search engine grabbed the word “finance” and returned those results. Fair enough, but on page 14 I noticed a “Food Resources” page that did not contain the word “finance”. This page has good information but seems inaccessible unless you search for “food resources”. It seems like a good fit for inclusion under the “Services” tab but is not listed there.
Similarly, searching for “budgets” does not return pages containing the town’s fiscal year budgets. Clicking the “Finances” link under the Town Governance tab brings up the Finance Committee’s page, which includes a link to several years’ worth of annual town budgets using the vague anchor text, “to be voted at the Annual Town Meeting”--which, in turn, brings you to the Town Meeting page.
I’ve noticed the presence of various nodes on the website, many of which do not seem connected to other website content. These nodes often present items of interest such as committee reports, election results, and, occasionally, bid requests.
Fortunately, the Shutesbury town website also has a Google Programmable Search Engine that crawls the entire site to return more targeted results. Happily, this service is free for non-profit sites.
To find all the nodes on the site, simply enter your search query in the “Enhanced by Google” search box. The search engine will display all the relevant nodes on Shutesbury.org, and you can browse through the multi-page search results.
The Google Programmable Search is particularly useful for researching a specific event, document, issue, or concern since it searches all documents on Shutesbury.org, including minutes.
Give Shutesbury.org a test drive and let the Web Communications Committee know if you have any questions, ideas for better site navigation, or suggestions for new or expanded content. They are there to help.
