DECATUR — Residents of Decatur will now have websites available to access information about the city of Decatur and the Decatur Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber of Commerce president David Flynt recently announced the chamber website, www.decaturarkansaschamber.org, is now online.

Russ Lightner, of Lightner Creative in Texas, designed the site which includes information about the Decatur Barbecue and a new Chamber of Commerce logo, Flynt said.

City council members voted on June 11 to hire Sean Shasteen of Auxark Consulting to design a site for the city that will include information about waterrates, contact numbers and announcements.

The first choice for the domain name is decaturar.org, but three other alternative names have been submitted, city administrative assistant Kim Wilkins said.

Shasteen said the site will consist of five to 10 “brochure” pages and cost $1,000 plus $50 a month for hosting. Shasteen said that occasional updates would be included in the price. The site will also have an “administrative” page where Wilkins can add announcements.

Shasteen told the council a website could significantly decrease call volume, depending on how many people in the community use the Internet. He also suggested it could encourage people from the outside area to move to Decatur since it is only 10 minutes from Centerton.

“There is a certain generation that has stopped using phone books and started using Google,” he said.

Shasteen said he would begin work on the site and bring a draft to the next council meeting.

Data Backup

The council also voted to hire Shasteen’s company to back up the city’s data at the end of each work day.

The offsite computer backup will protect the city’s data in case the building were to burn down, according to mayor Charles Linam. Currently, backup files are saved and put in a 3-hour fire-proof safe, he said.

Shasteen said that files would be backed up to an “in-house server” plus another server in New Jersey for $50 per month.

News, Pages 9 on 06/27/2012