Vincent town officials and citizens will soon be able to access public records at any time with the town’s new website, set to launch within weeks.

The website will be part of the town’s contract with the TriNovus company, which will also install the VendorVault online public records database system to work with the website.

Starr Largin of TriNovus said VendorVault provides municipalities with three features in one product: a disaster recovery system for records, organization and transparent government.

“It’s Internet-based, so the mayor and city council can be out of the office and actually be able to access all the city hall records 24 hours a day, seven days a week from their home or anywhere they have Internet access,” Largin said. “It’ll allow the citizens to be able to access the records 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Vincent council member Bridgette Jordan-Smith, who first contacted Largin about the VendorVault system and city website, said the website will allow local citizens as well as out-of-towners to find out more about Vincent.

“We’re the only town now in south Shelby that doesn’t have a website, so I’m excited for the opportunity for us to finally have one,” Jordan-Smith said. “We have a rich history, and we’ll be able to share that information with our citizens.”

Jordan-Smith said she hopes the website will help Vincent citizens interact with the town government.

“Vincent is a hot topic now, and people are trying to find out more information about Vincent, so we need to have a website where people can find out about our town,” she said. “We are creating a more transparent government. I think it will open up so many doors for us.”

The VendorVault system will also be an asset for Vincent, she said. Right now, all the town’s public records, deeds and ordinances are saved at the Vincent Town Hall, both electronically and on paper.

“If our city hall were to burn down today, we would lose everything,” Jordan-Smith said.

Largin said she will meet with Vincent officials soon to design the website. She said she expects the site, which does not yet have a web address, to go live within two weeks.

Recent events in Vincent point to the need for a town website and easy access to public records, Largin said.

“Due to the quarry event and people complaining that they did not know what was going on at city hall because they could not get in and the town didn’t have a website, the city of Vincent is planning for future growth by providing this information to their citizens 24 hours a day and seven days a week,” she said.

Largin said TriNovus also makes website design available to local businesses.

Four other municipalities in Shelby County currently use the VendorVault system, including Pelham, Columbiana, Montevallo and Wilton.

For more information about TriNovus website design or the VendorVault system, contact Starr Largin at starr.largin@trinovus.com.