NORTHFIELD — The town is working to enhance its municipal website by upgrading its software, which hasn’t been done in nearly 10 years.

Northfield plans to upgrade its existing CivicPlus software to the latest version in hopes of making the website easier for users to navigate while enabling individual boards and committees to update their pages with greater ease after receiving some training, according to Selectboard member Barbara “Bee” Jacque.

“You have to stay current,” she said. “The pages will look fresher than they are now because it’ll be easier to just put stuff up or put up the latest event and not have it all be going through [the town secretary]. ... That’s a key advantage right there.”

Another advantage, Jacque noted, is how the website can be a tool in the Selectboard’s toolkit to further its goal of community outreach since it will be easier for residents to sign up for department and committee updates regarding meeting announcements and the posting of minutes.

“This is all basic stuff, but I think when you’re not on the latest software, this kind of holds you back from just regular and easy communication on the internet,” she said.

The website is also expected to have an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant feature that will provide verbal descriptions of the page to people who are blind or visually impaired.

Transitioning the website will cost roughly $27,000, according to Town Administrator Andrea Llamas. The first payment of roughly $9,000 will be covered by the Selectboard’s technology and computer budget line items. The rest is due after July 1, the start of fiscal year 2026, with an annual fee of around $10,000.

There is no timeline for when the new website will go live, however, it’s expected to be completed this year, Jacque said. One of the next steps will be to identify what material needs to be transferred from the old site onto the new system as Northfield transitions to the new technology.