Lower Towamensing Township's website will be getting a face-lift. The supervisors voted Tuesday night to hire a firm that specializes in websites for municipalities.

Sal Urbano, the Mid-Atlantic manager for Virtual Towns and Schools, gave a presentation to the supervisors about all the company has to offer. Headquartered in Massachusetts, the company created software that allows municipality personnel to easily update and change information, as well as being easy for people to find and access information whether on their computers, tablets or smartphones. This mobile-friendly format is called responsive design, he said."If it is easy to use, it can be a platform to quickly communicate with the community," Urbano said.Some of that information could be meeting agendas and minutes, event announcements, a listing of businesses or a newsletter. In addition to being available on the website, the newsletter will also be able to be distributed electronically.The way it works is the company will design the website using input and preferences provided by the supervisors and staff. Once designed, they provide training to the staff."The company has a real passion for an affordable package that will make your website look like a big city's (website)," Urbano said.The cost is $5,000 for the website design, training and implementation, which can be paid over as much as three years. Plus, there is a hosting support fee of $1,995 each year.Supervisor Ronald Walbert wasn't certain the website redesign is needed."The past four years we've only spent $1,600 on the website," he said. "I'm very conservative when it comes to spending.""I think it provides more services to the residents," said Supervisor Brent Green. "We don't have the ability to update our website or control it."Green suggested they look for ways to offset the cost and expand the initial payment for the design, training and implementation over the three years."That would be more palatable to me," Walbert said.The supervisors also agreed to accept the sole bid for blacktop submitted by Lehigh Asphalt Paving and Construction Co. in Tamaqua.For blacktop that will be picked up by the township at the plant, the costs of materials ranged from about $50 to $51.75 per ton. For stone that will be delivered, the bid ranged from $13.65 to $19 per ton for different types of materials.The township has a long list of roads it is considering for patching repairs. One resident expressed concern about Maple Drive and said there are some deep potholes on the road.Green acknowledged the need to get repairs done soon, but said the township isn't at that point."We don't have a definite plan yet," he said.