City of Cloquet gets on the bandwidth bandwagon

• Image

Talk about it

More...

• City of Cloquet website
• Cloquet deserves praise for ‘getting connected’

It’s official. The city of Cloquet can finally be found in cyberspace.

Their website, www.ci.cloquet.mn.us, is live after at least five years in the making.

And although it may not be complete, plenty of information exists on the site, from all of the city’s codes to city council member contact information to permit application forms.

There is a section that answers frequently asked questions and a section for people to request e-mailed information including meeting minutes. Those using city utilities can even fill out a form on the site requesting their first and/or last utility bill when moving residences.

“We’re still posting information on it,” said Cloquet City Administrator Brian Fritsinger. “I guess you could say it’s still under construction.”

Fritsinger has uttered that phrase numerous times in the past few years. In 2008, he predicted the site would be up and running by the end of the year.

Instead, site creation took a back seat to higher priorities such as the renovation of the city’s swimming pond, economic development projects and the lack of staff to tackle everything simultaneously, Fritsinger said.

He also had the task of informing numerous people that existing sites with information about Cloquet were not actually hosted by the city.

“People [would] tell me what they saw on the city’s website, and [I was] quick to tell them it’s not affiliated with us,” Fritsinger said.

City administrators even tried to purchase one of the simpler domain names snapped up by a Hermantown resident.

“Several people bought up the domain names with the word Cloquet in them, but trying to purchase them went nowhere,” he said.

Cloquet joins Carlton County and the towns of Barnum, Carlton, Cromwell, Esko, Moose Lake, Thomson and Wrenshall, all of which have websites.

“A woman in Shoreview last week asked me if we were still the only city in the state without a website,” Fritsinger said. “I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m glad we’re getting there.”

Look for the site to be complete in the coming weeks, he said.

Tags: news, website, cloquet, technology