Cole County commissioners approved a contract Tuesday to move forward with its July decision to upgrade the county's website.
The commission hired Civic Plus, a company that designs websites for more than 50 cities around the country. The money to pay for the project will come from the county's capital improvement sales tax funds.
In June, Civic officials gave a demonstration to the commission, county-elected officials and county department heads who have links to the county's site. All who attended said they liked what they saw.
The new website could have features such as an interactive calendar for county events and the capability for paying fees.
The up-front cost would be $39,000 with $5,850 for yearly maintenance afterward.
The company also will make an app for residents to access the site from their iPhones. The initial cost to the county would be $5,000 with $1,500 a year for maintenance.
It would take four to six months to develop the site before it could go live.
Departments and elected officials would be responsible for the content, and the site should be up and running next year.