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Health & Fitness

Mixed Reviews on New City Website

A brief review—or initial reaction—to the newly launched website for the city of Murrieta.

I had a chance to visit the new and improved city of Murrieta website, www.murrieta.org.

The first reason was to access my account to find out why I was not getting field closure updates like I used to—could it be due to the new website? After a few unsuccessful attempts to gain access, eventually I reset my password and found that indeed the box for these updates was suddenly unchecked, but I was still receiving messages for City Council agendas and minutes. Anyone who has opted for email updates might want to revisit their account as well.

Another reason I needed to visit the website was to do some research for a class assignment. I was looking for geographic and demographic information, as well as some historical background facts. I found some things, but the link for demographics under “view” in the “how do I” drop-down menu loaded an empty page. The U.S. Census Bureau website, www.census.gov was more helpful for my demographic research. Go to Quick Facts and type in Murrieta for the city if you need demographic information.

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Another visit to the website was to familiarize myself with the layout and design and identify helpful links I might need in the future—not that it would be easy to find them in the future, but at least I would recall if the site had those links. This led me to the link for “What’s New.” The day I checked what was new was February 16, 2012. There was a YouTube video of Kim Davidson, Business Development Manager for the city who provided an announcement of an upcoming mayoral event: “State of the City Address,” which would be Thursday, March 1; 4 p.m. at Village Walk in the former Party City building. “Very cool,” I thought. "I want to mark that on my calendar."

To ensure I heard the day, time and place correctly, I went to the “City Hall” drop-down menu and selected their “Calendar.” However, this event was not on the calendar. I had to return to the video to verify I heard the details of the state of the city event correctly. That was a little annoying. Why was this not on the calendar? After a couple tries with the “Email” link I was able to ask this question. I have not had a response yet.

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Overall it is a better website and I am especially pleased that the Murrieta Public Library has a more autonomous and improved site as well, even if it is still linked to the city's website, www.murrieta.org/services/lib/. However, I have not spent extensive time examining the site, so this is an initial reaction.

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