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— Site to go live Thursday, April 16 at noon

–Boasts significant changes to design and improved usability

GLOUCESTER, Mass. (April 15, 2020) – Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken announces the launch of the City’s redesigned website, http://www.gloucester-ma.gov. The refreshed site is expected to go live on Thursday, April 16 at noon and will make it easier for Gloucester residents and businesses to access services, find information and engage in local government.

Mayor Romeo Theken said, “This redesigned site will make navigating City government much easier. The updated site is an important communications tool for residents, businesses and visitors to find information. We will work to continuously improve its content, functionality, and usability.”

James Pope, Director of Information Services, said, “We’ve been working hard to improve the City’s website. We hope Gloucester residents, businesses, and visitors appreciate the refreshed design and improved user experience. The City continues to make significant investments in information technology that provide more convenient, useful functions for our citizens.”

The digital front door for the City of Gloucester features significant changes to the visual design and content organization of the City’s website. The new site showcases a cleaner and mobile friendly design, an upgraded and more prominent search function, and integrated social media feeds consolidating accounts from across city departments.

Visitors can expect some changes on the new site that were part of the overall strategic design that in the end will improve user experience. The new content-focused design places an emphasis on news. As a result department specific announcements/notices will be updated on their respective pages, not the home page. For example, updates, reminders or information on trash collection will be found on the Department of Public Works page. The home page news section will be used for news and announcements from City Administration.

All public meetings will now be listed under the “Public Notices” section of the site, not the City Calendar. This will consolidate notice information for all upcoming City of Gloucester public meetings and hearings. Due to COVID-19, the City is currently utilizing the Zoom platform for remote participation of public meetings. Details about accessing each meeting and instructions on how to connect can be found by clicking on “remote meetings” on the Public Notices page.

The City is excited about the introduction of an event mapper. The event mapper will help users navigate what is going on in the City as it is happening. This will be a helpful feature for residents related to street closures/detours or ongoing roadwork for major events, snow removal, construction and road races.

Pope said, “This feature was built from scratch and will be a very useful real-time tool for residents to know what is going on in certain areas of the City at any given time.”

Due to the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Gloucester has created an informational page on its website to help disseminate information about COVID-19. To view the webpage click here. Given the rapidly evolving circumstances, the City will be updating this information regularly.

Mayor Romeo Theken said, “We hope the public continues to utilize this webpage as a tool to stay informed. In a time such as this, when misinformation is spread quickly to our residents through a variety of platforms, it is important that we share information and guide our local community towards credible sources.”

As the new site goes live residents are reminded to sign up for emergency alerts and check your website subscription to ensure you receive important City announcements and public meeting notices. You can sign up for emergency alerts here. To review your current subscription selections and/or sign up for City of Gloucester website notifications click here.

The redesign was led by Pope in partnership with CivicPlus. CivicPlus is an integrated technology platform for local government that delivers thoughtful solutions that improve website functionality. Photography and aerial shots on the homepage were provided by photographer Sean O’Laughlin of Cut Bridge Productions. The photos featured throughout the site highlight the City’s beautiful architecture and our working waterfront

The redesigned website was first discussed at Mayor Romeo Theken’s Inaugural Address on January 1. The City had originally expected to launch the site in mid-march but delayed amid COVID-19 planning.

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DOCUMENTARIAN REED, JOINS FORCES WITH THE ORGANIZERS OF THE JUKE JOINT FESTIVAL TO PREMIERE HIS FILM, WHICH FEATURES EXCLUSIVELY SELECTED ARTIST PERFORMANCES AND TRADITIONS FROM THE JUKE JOINT FESTIVAL OF 2019 FOR THE NOW CANCELLED 2020 JUKE JOINT FESTIVAL.

BOSTON, MA and CLARKSDALE, MS, April 10, 2020 – When Grammy- and Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker Ted Reed learned that the JUKE JOINT FESTIVAL scheduled for April 17, 2020 was cancelled due to the global health crisis, he immediately leapt into action pushing back the release of his original documentary “THE BLUES TRAIL REVISITED” and instead worked to create a new film celebrating the performers and performances of the festival of 2019. “JUKE JOINT FESTIVAL REVISITED”, a 60 minute film, created for digital release on Saturday, April 18th, features exclusive performances with some of the world’s blues legends, old and new. This film celebrates the worldwide impact the Juke Joint Festival has on blues tourism, blues culture, and the unwavering passion and dedication to keeping the blues alive for generations to come.

Last April, Reed, a self-proclaimed blues fanatic, filmed extensive footage for his soon to be released documentary, “THE BLUES TRAIL REVISITED”, during the annual Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, MS. While editing this film, Reed realized he had a treasure trove of live performance footage. His decision to create a new film based on this exclusive performance footage came from a desire to help blues musicians and fans through this challenging time.

Led by Roger Stolle, Nan Hughes and their amazing team, The Juke Joint Festival draws in thousands of blues fans from all over the world for a weekend full of live musical performances. With this year’s 18th annual festival cancelled, they wanted to create an online experience and felt Reed’s documentary, JUKE JOINT FESTIVAL REVISITED, would be a great opportunity to relive last year’s event and provide a finale to a day of live-streamed blues performances during April 18th’s just announced VIRTUAL JUKE JOINT FESTIVAL CELEBRATION.

Reed and Stolle’s ultimate goal is to help drive donations to the Blues Foundation COVID-19 fund (https://j.mp/2wupAYe), and the Mississippi Blues Benevolent Fund (http://www.msbluestrail.org//mississippi-blues-trail-donations).

About Ted Reed

Ted has been producing, directing, writing, and shooting films and television since the 1970s. Creating documentaries, commercials, animated features, and broadcast and streaming series. His storytelling expertise has led to award-winning shows about gender equality, the future of communications technology, immigration, national parks, West Indian music, space tourism, assisted suicide, Jewish innovators, and handgun violence. He is the recipient of multiple awards.

During his career he partnered with the MIT team who pioneered internet streaming video technology, produced New England’s first local all-digital TV broadcast and pioneered the use of interactive video for large business meetings.

Ted has taught and lectured at Harvard University, Tufts University, Boston University, Endicott College and the Boston Film and Video Foundation. He has brought filmmaking courses to elementary schools, community groups and retirement homes, and continues to run film, photography and music workshops at his office in Gloucester, MA.

About Roger Stolle

After a successful 13-year advertising/marketing career in Corporate America, “Mad Man” Roger Stolle moved to Clarksdale in 2002 with a mission to “organize and promote the blues from within.” He owns Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art (“Mississippi’s Blues Store”), co-founded multiple festivals (Juke Joint Festival, Clarksdale Film Festival, Clarksdale Caravan Music Fest, Cat Head Mini Blues Fest, etc.), writes for Blues Music Magazine and Poland’s Twój Blues magazine, is a contributing editor to Delta Magazine, authored “Hidden History of Mississippi Blues” and “Mississippi Juke Joint Confidential” (History Press/Arcadia), and co-produced award-winning films like “Hard Times,” “M for Mississippi” and “We Juke Up in Here”. He is co-creator (with Jeff Konkel, Broke & Hungry Records) of the web series Moonshine & Mojo Hands. He produced three acclaimed albums on Big George Brock and has assisted other blues record labels.
His Cat Head store was called “one of the 17 coolest record stores in America” (Paste mag) An authority on Delta blues and tourism, Stolle is a frequent speaker at events and has been quoted by The New York Times, Forbes, The Economist, PBS Newshour, NPR and Travel+Leisure.