By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT / Staff Writer

WESTOVER – While the city of Westover has utilized a website for years, a recent overhaul offers its citizens additional amenities and information.

“We have had a website for several years. We wanted to freshen it up, give it a new look, add additional content and really use it as an online city hall or as close to an online city hall as we could,” Westover Mayor Mark McLaughlin said.

The website, Westoveralabama.org, offers features such as a calendar, a news events tab and a development services tab.

“People can get on there to see when upcoming events are — from city council meetings to upcoming Christmas parades. They can also see news events that have occurred and are occurring in our city,” McLaughlin said. “The development services tab has a lot of online forms. A lot of business people and builders have a lot of forms they need. There’s also a map of the city on that tab.”

The city of Westover is connected to Facebook also, and the page offers updates on meetings and events.

“(The website) is kind of an online brochure. We’ve expanded our phone system simultaneous to that. The extensions are on the website,” McLaughlin said. “When you call city hall during the day, you can reach anyone who works for the city through that one phone number. You can reach the fire marshal, the fire chief and the mayor’s office. We’ve come a long way.”