Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Internet surfers have three new locations to visit and they all offer another view of life in Warsaw and Kosciusko County.
Warsaw is the most recent entrant on the World Wide Web, launching the city's official site Monday. It joins The Warsaw Police Department and The Warsaw Community Public Library, which have also recently made their high-tech presence known.
"We're hoping that the citizens of Warsaw - and especially the kids - can use it to learn more about the city," said Michelle Bormet, assistant to Mayor Ernie Wiggins and manager of the city's website.
"It's also going to add another effective channel for city residents to communicate with their government officials," she added.
In addition to providing information on the various city departments, it has tax rate information and demographic data. There is also space set aside for biographical profiles of the candidates in the upcoming municipal primary elections.
The city's website address is www.warsawcity.net.
The WPD site has been up since September 1997 and has logs about six to 10 visits or "hits" per day, according to Sgt. Larry Engle, who maintains the site for the department.
"That number of hits per day is pretty good for a town our size," he said. "But during the winter storm in January, we were getting between 60 and 70 hits per day with people getting updates on the weather and street and government office closings."
The WPD site has information on the Drug Awareness Resistance Education program, weather updates and road construction information. Engle added there are plans to add a Crime Stoppers tip page, as well.
The department's website has taken on an international flavor since it first went on-line, Engle said. Not only have former Warsaw residents from around the United States visited to get information about the hometown, but he has received messages from people in Australia, Germany and Japan who have visited the site and requested more information on Warsaw and Kosciusko County.
Managing the website has been a learning experience, Engle added. And it has provided some interesting and humorous "mistakes."
"I had put a weather site link for Warsaw's current and forecasted weather," he said. "By mistake, I linked to the weather site for Warsaw, Poland. The amazing thing was that the weather was very similar and we didn't notice it for a week or so."
The department's website address is www.kconline.com/police/warsaw.
WCPL has been on the Internet since the beginning of March, and the site is still under construction. Once the site is completed, library patrons will be able to check on book availability, the schedule of library classes and programs and other community information, according to assistant director Joni Brookins. She encourages Warsaw residents to visit the library's website at www.wcpl.lib.in.us and offer suggestions as to how the library staff can improve the site to better serve the needs of the community.
"If there's anything they'd like to see on the website, please let us know," she said.
The city, WPD and library websites can all be reached through links found on the Times-Union website - timeswrsw.com.
