Revisions and additions to the Village of Libertyville’s media platforms are a step in the right direction, officials said.

The goal was to make the village more user-friendly by placing more documents on the recently revamped website, and by building a village Facebook fan page and Twitter account, said Kelly Amidei, assistant village administrator.

“When we are updating our village news, now if people are fans of us with Facebook or follow our Twitter page, that info will go right to them,” Amidei said. “Now our goal will be getting people to sign up to be a fan of ours.”

The revamp of the website and social media platforms have been a work in progress since the start of the fiscal year, May 1. Amidei has been a liaison with village staff, village officials and the website vendor, Civic Plus, in making improvements to the site, which was originally launched in 2007.

It took a little longer than expected to get the changes to the site up and running, largely because some were such a big leap for the village, she said.

Piles of documents previously made available for village officials, the press and anyone who requested them are now being uploaded online.

During the reconstruction of the website, village officials approved a social media policy that will serve as a guideline on appropriate uses for platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

The village’s Facebook site is being used as another avenue to post the village’s news, emergency alerts and event information, and not so much as a forum for comments and chatter, Amidei said. The purpose is mainly to educate citizens on how the village is operating, she  said.

The changes also come at a time when the village has two referendums coming up in March–one asking tax payers to approve spending more money on roads improvements, and another one on the village seeking bids for lower electricity rates for residents and businesses.

“The real issue with the policy is we want to set it up where it is information going out,” Amidei said.

Going forward, village staff and officials are considering video recording public meetings that would be uploaded to the site, she said.

“We are awaiting some technical logistics about capturing the sound, etcetera and then at the Feb. 14 special projects (meeting), hopefully we will present that information and they will be able to make a committee recommendation to the board,” Amidei said.

Trustee Jim Moran, who has been an advocate for a higher level of transparency by the village, believes the improvements are a step in the right direction.

“When we were able to get the agenda with all the supporting documents online, that was a huge step forward. That makes me happy about the progress that we’ve made,” Moran said.

For the time being,  there is  a tight budget restricting the amount of staff and time that can be dedicated to the new website and social media, Moran said.

“Unfortunately, the village doesn’t have the finances to have the staff we need.

I’d still like to see the staff we have work to integrate social media more with what we’re doing as a village. It’s something we’re still moving towards, but I don’t want people putting in 80-hour weeks,” he said.

As the village moves closer to planning for the next fiscal year’s budget, the administration is recommending putting money aside to hire a part-time employee to operate the new online bells and whistles, Amidei said.