Wednesday, May 16, 2001
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Wednesday, May 16, 2001 |
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Demand for tax info swamps county Web site By DAVE
HAMRICK
Too much success has temporarily scuttled Fayette County's efforts to make property tax information available online. "The server just was not designed to handle that much traffic," said Marc Rogers, the county's webmaster. Rogers has been working for several months now to upgrade the site, make it more interactive and user-friendly and provide more information. As part of that effort, tax records were made available, but the demand for the information and the amount of data involved were so great that the system was overwhelmed, he said. "It's like 40,000 records," said Rogers. "And it ended up being more popular than we had expected." A "more robust" server and new, improved software will solve the problem and make the records available again, he said, and even increase the amount of information available. "We'd like to include more information about the dwellings themselves," he said. But in the meantime visitors who look for tax records on the Web are being directed to visit the county offices to get the information, or send an e-mail request. The need for visits to the office, phone calls and e-mails requiring staff time are precisely what the Web site upgrades are intended to reduce. "We want to get to where the folks use the Web site as an alternative to picking up the phone," said Rogers. But as county workers prepare the coming year's budget, a mammoth undertaking, the upgrade will take a back seat for awhile, he added. Some improvements to watch for in the future: A page for newcomers. Rogers said the page will have information on cable providers, gas and electric service, local government, etc. "It'll be a one-stop page for new residents with links to drivers' license information and that sort of thing," he said. "That way they can get the information even before they move in." A redesigned site map, with more information on various pages within the site. As an ongoing process, Rogers said he also is updating the code so that the site's organizational structure is easier to deal with. The site is at www.admin.co.fayette.ga.us.
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