City of Blaine Launches New Website

We are excited to announce the City of Blaine new and improved website, BlaineMN.gov. This engaging, user-friendly redesign features local photography and a colorful interface with intuitive buttons and icons making navigation of the new website much easier. The new website is Mobile Responsive, easily viewed from all devices including tablets and smartphones – something that was missing from the previous website. In addition, the new web address is easy to remember, BlaineMN.gov. Along with the change of web address, city staff emails have also changed.

Redesign


The unique design was a collaborative effort between CivicPlus and the City. The homepage features spotlights, city news, events, meetings, and frequently requested information. Three department-specific designs highlighting BlaineBiz.com, BlaineParks.com, and BlaineSafetyServices.com were part of this first phase of the redesign.
BlaineMN.gov Full Layout
BlaineBiz.com

BlaineBiz.com

, developed for our business community, includes a new and
improved Business Listing, an updated Available Land and Buildings, and a news
section dedicated to local business. Other features include business visit requests
and opt-in notification options for up-to-date business information.
BlaineParks.com

BlaineParks.com

, highlights our many events, programs, and park facilities, and
includes an easy to find Senior Center section, improved park facility finder, and
subscribable calendar.
BlaineSafetyServices.com

BlaineSafetyServices.com

, developed for our public safety units of Police, Fire,
Emergency Management, and Community Standards, includes easy to use forms to
request reports, submit traffic complaints, and thank a cop.
Additional department designs are planned for the coming years.
BlaineConnect

BlaineConnect


The City of Blaine is committed to connecting with the Community and proudly introduces BlaineConnect. We collaborated with several partners to achieve this goal and each tool is designed for a specific purpose:
CivicReady

CivicReady®


Receive Emergency Notifications with CivicReady®
Blaine’s Emergency Notification System, Opt-In to Receive Alerts
BlaineMN.gov/CivicReady
Tip 411

Tip411®

Submit Anonymous Tips to the Police Department with Tip411®
Sign Up to Receive Tips or Download the App
BlaineMN.gov/Tip411
Blaine Updates Powered by Notify Me

NotifyMe®

Connect with Your Community with NotifyMe®
Opt-In to Receive Blaine Updates on Topics that Interest You
BlaineMN.gov/NotifyMe

Other Notables

Request Tracker allows the Community to report concerns such as potholes, weed control issues, street light outages, etc. In addition, the tool allows the ability to track the work from start to finish via email notifications.

Improved Menus with the addition of our How Do I and Services sections. Website visitors no longer need “inside” knowledge of City Hall organization. Items are grouped in categories such as Apply, Contact, Find, Pay, Sign Up, Submit, and View.  In addition, our Services section highlights specific duties performed by our many departments.

Our Residents section was incorporated from our former site and continues to point citizens to important information such as Garbage and Recycling, Residential Community Standards, and Online Payments.

Our Construction Updates blog gives timely information on the many projects happening around the City and allows you to subscribe to the updates that matter to you.

Additional user-friendly functionalities such as drag-and-drop features will help streamline City Staff processes including workflow centers, bid postings, synchronized calendars, citizen request tracker, mass communications, and media integration.

The City invested approximately $100K in the new website which included redesign, content and data migration, on-site training, and a four-year hosting fee. Many of the high-resolution photos used throughout the site were taken by local photographer, Sarah Grace Photography. City employees also contributed to the photography.

“Kudos to Heidi Andrea, Blaine’s Web Coordinator, for the successful implementation of the City’s redesigned website using CivicPlus. The project took well over a year from inception to full launch and Heidi did a remarkable job coordinating all social media and other aspects involved in the upgrade,” states Finance Director, Joe Huss. “Special thanks to our IT staff for their assistance and all the employees who put in extra effort to implement the much-improved, fully integrated website,” adds Huss.

A mobile app will be added in the future. The smartphone app will allow citizens to submit concerns via their mobile devices, as well as receive alerts and push notifications.


History


In January 2016, the City of Blaine requested bids from qualified firms to design, configure, and implement a new and improved City website that would increase engagement with the public and optimize our communication.

The City entered into a contract with CivicPlus in May 2016. CivicPlus is a website company whose primary focus is designing website solutions for governmental agencies and cities such as Blaine. CivicPlus has more than 2,000 government clients with over 50,000 users and a staff of more than 200. CivicPlus clients have won over 370 state and national awards for website design and implementation.

“CivicPlus was founded on designing website solutions for government entities and cities like ours,” states Web Coordinator, Heidi Andrea. “They also redesigned the websites for the City of Coon Rapids and Anoka County, so we were confident in their ability to design and implement a website that would fit our customer’s and employee’s needs.”