Tazewell County Board members and staff spent a portion of a meeting discussing the county’s website, technology priorities and public outreach, including prospects for agenda and minutes software, search improvements, and more proactive social media and press releases.

Board members said the county has completed a front-end conversion to a new website but needs further work to add content, improve search results and connect departmental systems so the public can more easily find services. A county official said the recorder of deeds has posted records online for three years and that deeds back to 1827 are available on the county website.

The discussion covered two main approaches to communicating with residents: “push” communications such as press releases and social media, and “pull” communications where residents locate information on the website. Several participants urged maintaining both approaches and assigning a staff “champion” to keep sections up to date; the health department’s communications work was cited as an example of consistent maintenance.

Participants raised practical issues: search results must be tuned so queries such as “birth certificate” point to the correct county clerk page; a complete, searchable keywords architecture will require staffing or contractor support. One participant warned that starting an active outreach program without the capacity to sustain it could lower public trust if pages or accounts are not maintained.

Speakers also noted a digital divide: one participant said roughly a third of the county lacks reliable broadband access, which limits the reach of online improvements and argues for keeping some push communication channels. Cost estimates for more sophisticated agenda or minutes platforms were discussed but not specified.

The board agreed to keep the conversation going as part of its goals-setting process and to consider website improvements, outreach strategy and financial-reporting tools that could provide more routine budget-to-actual information to board members.