Gravenhurst on the verge of the future

GRAVENHURST - On the day Gravenhurst officially began its 125th anniversary celebrations, it also made some serious steps toward the next century.
During a special public town hall meeting called for the opera house the night of April 23, council and staff began the journey to a new and major web redesign, gauging residents’ desires and outlining some suggestions that should be included in the project.
“It was in 1887 when Gravenhurst was incorporated, only to be ravaged by a fire that decimated the town core that very same year. It was at that point that the citizens of this town learned about the concept of rebuilding,” Mayor Paisley Donaldson explained. “In today’s marketing world, this is often referred to as repackaging; our future new web portal will give us the opportunity to repackage the town to the global community and attract the investment and interest we have worked so hard to achieve.”
There was also discussion beyond the use of a new web portal just for marketing and information purposes, but to also potentially take part in a pilot project with the University of Waterloo campus in Huntsville to create a Gravenhurst “app” for mobile devices and truly be on the leading edge of municipal Internet interaction.
Rob McPhee, executive director of Muskoka Community Network, explained he and town officials have been discussing the possibility of Gravenhurst becoming something of a “guinea pig” and rolling out Muskoka’s first town-based mobile app, which would provide detailed and easily navigated information about local amenities, businesses and tourism locations for the hugely popular and growing mobile device market.
He explained when the Internet first emerged as a common tool about 15 years ago, the technology was fascinating but rudimentary. The emerging Internet technology will use fibre optics, which are beginning to finger their way into Muskoka, particularly with the creation of the Huntsville campus that is attached to the main campus already via fibre optics.
McPhee said mobile technology has exploded internationally and the town should get on the leading edge of providing mobile applications to tap into that intelligent, savvy and eager market.
“The mobile market is coming on like a freight train,” he said. “Are we going to be ready for it?”
Through the University of Waterloo and partnership with the town and its businesses, a wealth of information could be provided through a Gravenhurst “app” that the students would create as a pilot project.
“It doesn’t happen overnight,” McPhee added. “But wouldn’t it be wonderful to show off our arts and culture with people around the world, and all they have to do to see that is download the (Gravenhurst) destination marketing app.”
Plans for the web portal are nothing short of becoming the best. Chief administrative officer Frank Miele said the goal is to create a central Internet presence for the town that is interactive and trans-active.
He said the town is in discussions with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) to secure funding to design the portal and he would expect the total cost for the creation to be anywhere between $35,000 to $50,000. Miele said the town has already begun roughing out some ideas by searching out the best in municipal websites around the world and tweaking those to include the local public’s desires and needs.
“The way the websites are being developed by most municipalities is to inform; our website is not only to inform people, but to interact and transact,” he said.
Tony Rossi, the town’s new economic development, marketing and communications manager, said the key will be to have a clean, easily navigated portal that is designed to provide quick and vital information to potential investors and visitors, while also catering to the local populace with services such as community calendars, frequent news updates and the ability to pay bills or fines online.
He said in addition to the hopes of garnering a grant or support from OMAFRA, the town will be looking to tender for a redesign in later May.
Surveys were circulated at the event and are available through the town office. People are asked to have those surveys submitted to town staff by April 30. Information collected will be used to begin plotting the portal.

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