Tantramar staff are recommending hiring a Moncton company to design, build, and host a new website for the municipality.
Ten companies bid on the project, including three New Brunswick companies. Blaze Studios scored highest on two rounds of evaluation, and community and corporate services director Kieran Miller explained one reason why in response to a question from Councillor Allison Butcher at council’s March 25 committee meeting.
“They’re based in Moncton, which as we know, several years ago, had a really tragic shooting incident,” explained Miller. “And they have an emergency messaging option which they created based on that event, because of how difficult it was to share messaging that day. And they now provide it free of charge to any of their clients.”
“I get goosebumps when I think about it,” said Miller. “It was just really meaningful, the way they explained it in their proposal. And that’s just one example of where they had value added.”
Blaze beat out Porter O’Brien on the project, the company who worked on last year’s branding project for Tantramar, along with The Details Branding and Design.
The tender document for the project set July of this year as the desired launch date for the site. It also specifies a mobile-friendly, accessible and responsive website, with an easy to use content management system.
In 2023, sackville.com had over 157,000 unique visitors, according to data collected by the municipality. Dorchester.ca had over 18,000 unique visitors in 2023.
New signs coming to major buildings
At their meeting on April 9, council will be asked to award a contract to Blaze Studios for just over $60,000 plus HST for the design, building and hosting of Tantramar’s new website.
Miller also told council in March about a number of changes that are coming to signs on various buildings in the municipality, to incorporate the new Tantramar logo. Buildings including the Engineering and Public Works depot, the Dorchester Veterans’ Community Centre, Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre (TVMCC), and Tantramar Visitor Information Centre, are all in line for renewed signage. Miller said that only town hall would see a name change, to Tantramar Municipal Office.
The most costly change will be for the current municipal office/town hall, which will see the new colourful Tantramar crest and logo applied in a “new back-lit channel letter sign” by Dobbelsteyn Signs for a cost of just over $17,000, plus HST. While that project will need approval from council on Tuesday, other signage projects will not. The Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre signage is expected to cost around $8,000-$9,000, and other buildings will be in the $3,000 range.
The cost of all sign changes is expected to be covered by provincial funding allotted to cover costs stemming from amalgamation.
