CASSOPOLIS  — The Cass County website may soon be getting a new look.

At Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, the Cass County Board of Commissioners floated the idea of updating the county website and drafting a request for proposal to secure the funds necessary to update the site. Though the proposal was neither approved nor denied at Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners said they would be considering the idea.

The discussion of updating the website began when county administrator Karen Folks noted that both the Cass County Friend of the Court and the Cass County Sheriff’s Office have been working on updating their websites.

“[The Cass County Friend of the Court and the Cass County Sheriff’s Office] are doing what they absolutely have to,” Folks said. “The county, which is the anchor to all that, should be engaging in the same activity.”

Updating the county website is already a part of the county’s strategic plan, but Folks wants to bring the issue front and center, she said.

Cass County’s Information Systems Department Director Kerry Collins supported the idea to update the website, saying that the current website is outdated and difficult to navigate.

“The website was designed in 2004. It was never meant to be the only website the county ever has,” he said. “It solved a problem at the time when websites were new. It’s time for a facelift for the website. It’s time for new content to be developed, and it’s time to create our internal systems to support that.”

However, Collins said the county would need to hire an outside company to build the new website, should the commissioners decide to move forward with the website update.

“Websites these days are less technical and more content based. How do you want to portray your message? What do you say? What themes do you want present to people who visit the website?” he said. “Those [questions] take marketing professionals. … They would be able to give you guidance.”

Though some questioned the timing of the request, many members of the board of commissioners also agreed with the need to update the county website and to make the issue front and center.

“Now is the time to do it. You have the courts addressing it. You have the sheriff addressing it, and now the county,” said Commissioner Michael Grice. “Let’s not push this down the road again.”

Ultimately, the commissioners agreed to take time to consider what they would want the newly updated website to look like and what features they would want the website to have.

“I’m going to put together a list of county websites that I want this board to take a look at,” Folks said. “I want [the board] to get a feel not just for what is out there aesthetically, but the informational piece and accessibility.”