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Franklin City Manager Rosylen Oglesby announced at the April 14 City Council meeting that the city website has been updated, and it has a new address, moving from www.FranklinVA.com to www.FranklinVA.gov.

New email addresses for city personnel are on the way as well, and they will also feature .gov on the end instead of .com.

To council members, Oglesby said, “The importance of having the .gov website is that as you are interacting with other governmental groups, you have that known, recognized part at the end of your email address.”

Additionally, she noted that if there is any outside attempt to tamper with the city’s website or online network, having the .gov address allows the government to levy more fines and penalties on the perpetrator.

Oglesby said that as of now, the www.FranklinVA.com website is still up because the city still owns it, but it is no longer being updated, so finding new information, like agendas for council meetings in April and beyond, will mean going to www.FranklinVA.gov to find them.

Oglesby said www.FranklinVA.com will probably remain up for at least another year.

“Then after that, it’s going to phase out, and we will just be operating with the .gov,” she said.  

Then, again addressing council members directly, she said, “Our email addresses will also change, but right now, because the .com is still active, somebody can still email you at your Franklin email address at FranklinVA.com and you will still receive it, but after a while, that’s going to be phased out.”

Franklin Mayor Paul Kaplan said, “Will our old website make reference to go to the new website?”

Oglesby said she would look into this.