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Camden County’s New Website Puts County Services First
Visit the all-new www.camdencounty.com
to win 4th of July VIP tickets
The Camden County Freeholder Board has launched an all new website that makes it much easier for residents to find answers about county services, access documents and get news updates about the county. Visitors to www.camdencounty.comwill find the information they are seeking quicker, and presented in a more structured format, than ever before.
“The new Camden County website is your roadmap to county services,” said Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. “Everything you need is no more than a click or two away from being retrieved.”
Answer a trivia question on the new website for your chance to win backstage passes and VIP treatment at the 4thof July concert by Paul Rodgers (of Free and Bad Company) followed by fireworks over Cooper River Park. Concert and contest details can be found on the homepage.
The new site provides up to date county news items, frequently used forms, popular county services and information about county departments. There are currently more than 130 e-documents and forms, with new items added each day. Special features of the site include online restaurant inspection information, registration for county updates, a photo album and county event calendar, along with invitations to follow the county on facebook and twitter.
“The new format allows you to search the website by keyword, or use the A to Z function to see all county services listed alphabetically,” said Freeholder Director Cappelli. “Now you can easily find out more about one of our county parks, or what roadwork is taking place on a county road near your home.”
Information such as how to protect your yard against mosquitoes, keep your family safe around the pool, plant a vegetable garden and improve your golf game, are all currently available on the site. There is also an online trivia contest to win two free buckets of golf balls on the driving range at the Camden County Golf Academy on Route 130 in Pennsauken Township.
“This will be the one website your entire family can visit for everything from registering to vote and obtaining a passport application to learning about job training and child care options,” said Freeholder Director Cappelli. “The new site also lists local attractions, historical sites and events – everything you need to plan a weekend.”
In April, the Camden County Department of Health and Human Services became the first in the state to post restaurant, school and hospital cafeteria inspection reports online. Residents also have the option to register for updates for when their favorite food establishments are inspected.
“This initiative puts Camden County on the leading edge of technology and strengthens our commitment to protecting the health and welfare of our community,” said Freeholder Carmen Rodriguez, liaison to the Department of Health and Human Services. “While several states, including Pennsylvania, have posted this information online, Camden County is the first in New Jersey to provide actual inspection reports on its website.”
“It also reports the standards that the establishment has successfully met as well as any violations noted at the time of inspection. This will make the inspection report clearer for both operators and consumers,” Freeholder Rodriguez added.
In addition to the restaurant inspections, reports also will be posted for all school and hospital cafeterias, along with other food-handling enterprises in Camden County, totaling approximately 3,500 establishments.
Once an inspection has been completed, the public will have online access to inspection findings in five (5) days. This allows establishment operators an opportunity to correct outstanding violations and request a re-inspection before the report is published. Restaurants in New Jersey are declared satisfactory, unsatisfactory or conditional. No further ratings are applied.
Recently, the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government (NJFOG), in conjunction with the Rutgers University School of Public Affairs, ranked the websites of New Jersey’s 21 counties. Camden County’s came in second among those recognized by the researchers who evaluated them for overall content and usability, ease of navigation, and accessibility to information.
“We are pleased to be named among the top websites in the state,” said Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli, Jr. “It is important to note that this survey was completed before the launch of our new website, which provides even greater access to county information.
Camden County’s website was acknowledged for openness in e-governance, and was ranked just after top-placed Hunterdon County. The rankings by the NJFOG were based on criteria in five areas, including the availability of contact information for officials, public meeting information and the nuts and bolts of county departments.
The new website also includes a “contact us” feature, which allows resident to submit their questions, comments or concerns to the Freeholder Board by email. It is the intention of the Freeholder Board to have these emails answered within a business day.
Camden County residents can also visit the website during the Freeholder Board’s monthly caucus meetings to view a live stream from the proceedings. Freeholder Meeting schedules, locations and agendas can be found on the site.
“The new Camden County website is intuitive and user-friendly,” said Freeholder Director Cappelli. “It is among the easiest websites to navigate I have visited, and I encourage the visitors to the site to give us their feedback.”
Camden County’s new website was developed by Simande of New York City. The company focuses on building websites that are fluid, easy-to-use, and effectively accomplish predefined specific goals.
“We wanted to help Camden County's residents both discover and take advantage of all the great services offered to them, and we believe we have achieved that with this re-launch,” said Matthew Shampine of Simande.
The website was built in Drupal, a free and open source content management system (CMS). This CMS was also selected by organizations including the White House and NASA for their websites because of its ability to manage and present large amounts of information in a user-friendly format.
To see all the new features, register for email updates or, to follow us on facebook or twitter, visit www.camdencounty.com.