By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Helena residents will notice a much-updated look when visiting Cityofhelena.org after the city worked with the Pelham-based Ingenuity firm to revamp the website.

The new website features “improved usability, new functionality, better content organization and a sleek new design, as well as more capabilities to interact with site visitors,” read an April 3 city press release.

In addition to the new website, which contains the city’s logo and slogan with a backdrop of the Buck Creek dam, the city has also launched a city Twitter account and Facebook pages for the city of Helena and the Helena Police Department.

The new website contains drop-down menus in several categories, including government, business and city departments. Services such as subscriptions for the city’s newsfeeds, emergency information alerts and school and road closings.

A mobile website also is viewable from tablets and cell phones.

In the future, the city plans to add the ability to reserve city facilities and park resources online, adding new features for businesses and making traffic studies and maps available to the public, according to the press release.

“A goal was set by this administration, including every City Council member, to make sure information and contacts for our city was easier to find and user friendly for to our citizens. We also wanted bring a fresh and updated look to our website,” said Helena Mayor Mark Hall. “Councilman Hal Woodman has worked closely with the provider on our behalf to help accomplish this upgrade to the website.

“We want people everywhere to know Helena is open for business, and we will continue to make improvements in City services,” Hall added.