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Southampton County debuted a newly updated and revised website in June that features an enhanced user interface and improved navigation.

A county news release noted that the refreshed website went live June 2 and has the same URL as before — www.southamptoncounty.org.

The release stated that the updated website also features “a mobile-responsive design for optimal viewing on all devices. Local events and attractions, as well as litter control efforts are more prominently featured on the updated site.”

In conclusion, the release stated, “Brian S. Thrower, county administrator, and Susan Wright, director of information technology, are excited to launch the new and improved website. They encourage citizens and visitors to explore the site and discover its many new features.”

Shortly after the updated site’s launch, it appeared to be malfunctioning, but Wright explained that it was not. She said visitors needed to clear their cache and cookies to view the updated site correctly.

“If anybody had the website saved as a ‘favorite’ or an icon, when you went to that, you were going to always get the wrong thing, because you had to clear everything, go to it and then re-save it,” she said. “If your computer is set to clear cookies automatically or to clear every 30 days or clear every whatever, then it would have taken care of itself.”

Sharing her opinion on the great features of the refreshed website, Wright said, “It does have a Facebook link at the top, whereas our old website did not, because we do have a Facebook page. We’ve had it a year or two, but some people don’t know that.”

She noted that the website has a lot of the same information, “but it’s just easier to navigate, a little easier to read and see and follow, and we have a Local Events & Attractions tab so that people can see local events coming up.”

The tab is prominently featured on a menu bar near the top of the page.

“We don’t do church events and Ruritan Clubs and all that,” Wright said, “but Heritage Day, things at the Rawls Museum, things that are county-related, County Fair… So those are a little easier to get to (on the site).”

Expanding on the county’s release, Wright said the updated site includes some emphasis on litter control in the county, sharing information on what clubs and people or organizations need to do if they want to hold a litter pick-up day, including who to contact and how they can be supplied with the vest and litter grabbers needed.

This information is found under the Government Entities tab on the aforementioned menu bar.

“On the last website, we really didn’t have a lot of emphasis on (litter control),” Wright said.

She noted that the refreshed website has some updated photos of Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission members, as well as key county locations, like the courthouse.

Revize is the firm that powers Southampton County’s website and that engineered the update.

“It was pretty custom,” Wright said of the update. “We told them what we were looking for. It’s similar to our old one, but we wanted to have a little bit more flexibility, a little bit more room. Our calendar is much bigger.

“Revize specializes in government websites, so they pretty much host it for us,” she added. “And if we run into any big-time glitches or whatever, we can reach out to them for support. But we do all the editing ourselves, posting the pictures, all that stuff.”

Also featuring websites powered by Revize are the city of Franklin, Isle of Wight County and soon the town of Windsor.

Wright said Revize’s support is good and timely.

“They had our last website, and we’ve been satisfied with them,” she said. “And it’s economical and all that good stuff.”

She confirmed that the refresh incurred no additional cost to the county beyond its pre-existing contract with Revize.

As for the timing of Southampton’s update, Wright noted that with the Southampton County Courthouse’s reopening following extensive renovations, county administration wanted to showcase it on the site, which it now does prominently via a Heartland Construction Inc. drone photo on the homepage.

“Plus, our contract with Revize includes a refresh every X number of years, and we were actually like a year and a half overdue for that,” Wright said. “So we just took advantage of that, and we’ve (also) got new voting districts (to highlight) now, (so we) just wanted to update it.”

She noted that the Board of Supervisors did not have to vote to authorize the update, but it was consulted during the update process.