Amherst Town Website
The MMA -- that's Mass Municipal Association, not Mixed Martial Arts -- awarded the town of Amherst an Honorable Mention certificate for community websites in the population range of 15 to 50,000.
This is the first year the organization that bills itself as "the voice of cities and towns in Massachusetts" has given an award for municipal websites.
In 2009 Common Cause Massachusetts designated Amherst an e-Government award winner for "transparency in Massachusetts municipal websites."
Like any good website Amherstma.gov is a huge time saver for both town employees and citizens, as well as tree saver. The always on 24/7 site allows citizens direct access to paperwork, and maintains efficient lines of communication for mundane meetings, or potentially lifesaving bulletins in the case of an emergency.
The site went live w-a-y back in July, 1998 as http://town.amherst.ma.us before assuming the current address in June, 2004. The site now routinely attracts 1,500 unique visitors daily (but has seen a peak of 4,600) and has thousands of subscribers who get information notifications by email, text message, or RSS feeds.
Amherst is also one of only a hand full of municipalities in the state that offers extensive free WiFi in the downtown.
You can thank Mike Olkin for a LOT of that effort. Thanks, Mike!!
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