Humboldt—city of the 21st century
CITY WEBSITE – John Blankenship, the director of the Humboldt Public Library, demonstrates how to navigate the City of Humboldt’s new website he designed.
by Ariel McRae
There are big things in the works for the betterment of the citizens of Humboldt. It is no secret that technology is now considered a need in today’s world. Every kind of information needs to be a click or finger tap away in order to service the needs of those within a city. Good news for Humboldtians, as the city of Humboldt now has a website where all the important details will finally be in one central hub for easy access to all.
Not only that, but Humboldt City Schools has updated their website to reflect the advancements within the technological world, so every kind of news is accessible by parents and students alike. Humboldt is on the up and up one website at a time.
Humboldt City Schools has had a website available for the past several years, but it was deemed outdated and not functionally useful for those visiting the site. Instead of finding the information needed online in one centralized location, parents were having to call the school in order to have their questions answered. While school faculty will gladly answer any questions, it presents an issue when the phone lines are clogged with questions that could easily be answered by searching the website. It inconveniences parents and guardians as well as takes away from issues that cannot be solved via the computer. Therefore, Humboldt City Schools Communications Director Ginger Carver suggested a remodel to the current website sported by Humboldt City Schools.
“A lot of the information was outdated [on the old website] and we were basically going to have to redo the whole thing anyway,” Carver explained about the need for a new website. “It was going to have to be revamped so why not make it look a little fresher, a little more modern to bring it into this century and to make it easier to navigate for our parents.”
On the new HCS website, parents will be able to find the schedule for games as well as a roster of players for each sport. They will be able to click a link that will send them to another website where they can check the school lunch schedule and prepay for their student’s lunches. There is also a school staff directory to make communication between parents, guardians and teachers easier. The website also has a tab where a parent can review their student’s grades to make sure everything is being completed. The goal is to eventually make this Humboldt City Schools website app friendly, but that could take until after the new year or longer to become a reality.
The city of Humboldt is also joining the world wide web officially. With the unpaid help of John Blankenship, director of the Humboldt Public Library, citizens of Humboldt can finally log onto their computer to have access to needed information instead of making a trip to check the bulletin board at the municipal building. The website is in the beginning stages, but it already features a few key things within the site with updates happening regularly.
Some of the items to be featured on the website will be board agendas, trash delays and pickups, contact information for city officials, tourism and forms and documents citizens should need. The ultimate goal is to have employment applications on the website with the ability to email the applications directly from to the appropriate places instead of having to print off applications and deliver them by hand.
“The biggest thing right now is the garbage schedule, the routes,” Blankenship described, “I am working on a map right now to have that added to see what street you live on. It will be a simple map to show when it needs to be picked up.”
Creating this website was a long time in the making and the Humboldt Public Library was happy to volunteer their help in the creation of this much needed tool. Until the website is fully functional in its ability to send things via email, the library offers printing for applications and other needs at a minimal cost.
These websites will forever be updating as more information presents itself as to better serve the citizens of Humboldt. This is a major win for Humboldtians as technological advancement is necessary for the growth of a city. With the creation and updating of these two websites, the city of Humboldt is on to bigger and better things on the horizon as it embraces the 21st century.
To check out these websites, visit
www.hcsvikings.org for Humboldt City Schools and
www.cityofhumboldt.net for the city of Humboldt.
