Residents who like to find out about town government happenings from the comfort of their own home by using the town Web site will be happy to know that at its Jan. 22 meeting the Pahrump Town Board approved requesting bids for services to update and maintain the site.

For several months now, certain features of the Web site such as the town's calendar have been defunct despite a contract with ITT Enterprises, the firm responsible for maintaining the site.

"I have received multiple complaints from people in the community that are accustomed to using (the Web site) as their access point," Chairman Laurayne Murray explained.

Vice Chairman John McDonald echoed Murray, saying he had received many complaints as well and found many items on the site had not been updated for a very long time.

Town Manager Dave Richards suggesting the board give the firm a chance to remedy the problem, but this was met with doubt by the board.

"We've attempted to impress upon the webmaster that the service wasn't satisfactory," Richards said. "They were preoccupied with other matters at the time, but I guess those matters have been resolved and I'd be remiss if I didn't recommend that you give them an opportunity to make things right."

However, the town manager conceded, if services still didn't improve he saw no reason not to go and seek a new firm to do the job.

Richards also pointed out that under the town's contract the firm is required to receive a 30-day notice.

He added the firm has been paid on an ongoing, monthly basis.

In spite of this, Richards said, the firm wasn't doing all that much. "A major complaint that I had was that the calendar was down, and I wasn't satisfied with the explanation as to why that wasn't back up within a week's time," Richard said. "They continue to post the meetings notices, at least the town board, and the backup material for the town board, but other items went undone."

Murray said she had been contacted by other companies in Pahrump that told her the town was paying too much for the services being offered.

"I know very little about Web sites, but my concern would be that if we give them a six-month extension and we continue to pay them, we might continue to pay them and still not get the work that's supposed to be done," McDonald said. "We'd just be six months farther behind."

Prior to a motion giving the company it's 30-day pink slip passed, Richards cautioned the board that "30 days might not be enough" to ensure reliable Web service.

He went on to explain that by changing webmasters, the entire site would have to be reconstructed and rebuilt, and that the process would involve far more than simply changing the name on an agreement.

And since building a new site could take longer than 30 days, Richards expressed concern about the interim period during which the town Web site might not be up at all.

Al Balloqui, chairman of the Pahrump Alliance Valley Economic Development, also expressed concern about the ramifications of having a defunct Web site.

He pointed out that many companies use site locators to help them determine a new place to bring their business, and the number one resource for site locators was a community Web site.

If the town's site was down, Balloqui suggested, economic development could be hindered in the long run.

Murray responded by saying the town's Web site was separate from a site meant to develop tourism or economic development.

"The town Web site is really an official government document site," Murray said. "It's not really a place where you want your economic development to live or your tourism to live or whatever. There should be links from there to some really exciting, energized, beautiful extensive Web site that does all that, but primarily our official government Web site should be to document the government."

The motion to give ITT Enterprises it's 30-day notice passed 4-1, with Nicole Shupp opposed.