Accessing Westmoreland County's website through a mobile app will become possible this year.
The site, which functions as the primary online location for information about the government, will be updated to allow mobile viewers to have better access.
County commissioners this month approved a $5,500 amendment to the five-year contract with CivicPlus of Manhattan, Kan., which is administrator of the website, to develop the mobile app.
Dave Ridilla, director of the county's information services department, said statistics show users have moved away from accessing the website via traditional computers.
Two years ago, only 10 percent of website users were on mobile devices. The most recent statistics revealed that 35 percent of the county's website traffic is from smartphones and other mobile sources.
“We're just staying up with the times. We know it will continue to grow,” Ridilla said of the website's smartphone traffic.
A mobile app would enable more users to access the full range of online services, officials said.
A Pew Research Center survey last year found that two-thirds of Americans have smartphones and 40 percent of those people access government services or information on their mobile devices.
That same study revealed that younger people are more likely to use smartphones to access the Internet.
And that's what Ridilla said Westmoreland County wants to tap into.
“We have to do what we have to do to bring the information to young people,” Ridilla said.
Web developers will look to model Westmoreland's proposed mobile app after ones used by Chester, Montgomery and Lancaster counties.
Westmoreland's mobile site will have standard government links that could be changed to highlight the most common online services being accessed, Ridilla said.
Most website functions now in place would be accessible for mobile users.
Tax payments cannot made via a mobile application, Ridilla said.
CivicPlus, which revamped the county's website four years ago, is expected to complete the mobile site by the end of the year.
Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.
