Why Middletown Is Spending $70,000 To Overhaul Its Website

Middletown Township will be upgrading its municipal government website before the end of the year.

In June, the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors awarded the development contract to vendor Exemplifi for $70,000, along with a $15,600 annual maintenance and support agreement to cover hosting, software updates, security, and technical support.

The township’s current platform, Kentico, reaches the end of its supported life cycle after December.

Township Public Information Officer Liz Martin explained that the existing site has suffered from recent technical issues.

“Throughout this year, we’ve experienced increasing reliability issues, including intermittent outages, broken links, which can impact residents’ access to important township information,” Martin said.

Beyond performance issues, local governments face a federal requirement under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The law mandates that municipal digital services, including websites and mobile apps, meet specific technical accessibility standards, including clear color contrast, resizable text, closed captioning for video, and alternative text for images.

Local governments nationwide are facing similar digital accessibility updates, Interim Township Manager Stephanie Teoli Kuhls said.

“We just happen to have sort of a double whammy of needing to update our website while at the same time addressing this,” Teoli Kuhls said. “There is a little economy of scale of doing it at the same time.”

The township solicited bids in May and received nine submissions.

Costs for development and implementation among applicants ranged from approximately $49,700 to $119,000.

Staff narrowed the field to three finalists, evaluating them on functionality, public sector experience, pricing, timeline, and overall fit before selecting Exemplifi.

Martin stated Exemplifi has experience in municipal government communications and an office in King of Prussia to assist with the long-term transition.

When Supervisor Dana Kane inquired about how the contract compares to current site costs, Township IT Manager Chad Megeed explained that the total package runs roughly $30,000 more than what the township paid about five years ago. However, officials noted that complying with new ADA rules increases the labor and technical requirements.

Supervisors Chairperson Bernadette Hannah called the workload to follow the ADA requirements are “very time consuming and arduous,” adding that municipal staff must manually review every single document posted on the site to check for compatibility with screen readers and assistive devices.

The township formed a cross-departmental website design team featuring representatives from administration, IT, police, human resources, building and zoning, and parks and recreation.

Once active, the new platform should improve navigation for agendas, permits, forms, meeting details, and emergency updates, while expanding online services so residents can submit forms directly through the site.

“This project is creating a modern, accessible and resident-focused website that better serves our community now and in the future,” Martin said.

When asked about the consequences of taking no action before the existing contract expires, Martin was clear on the outcome.

“Our website just shuts down completely and all of the information and everything we have on there is gone,” Martin said.