Gayle Corfman
Staff Writer

Greensburg's virtual gateway just got a little better.

The community website for Greensburg, www.treecity.com, (Webmaster note:  the website address for the community page is now, www.greensburgdecaturcounty.com) has undergone some recent improvements. Among the changes is a newly designed Web page for the Greensburg Police Department, completed about a month ago by webmaster David Leas.

Additional features include the list of daily arrests from the Decatur County Jail, weekly statistics on the number and nature of calls that the police department receives and a staff page, featuring names and pictures of the staff of the department.

"What my goal is in having the pictures on the site with names is so people can put a name to a face," said Leas.

Leas uses the information provided in media reports to update the site daily.

Another area with some changes is the city page.

Minutes from the Greensburg City Council, Greensburg Plan Commission and the Board of Works have been placed on the site, forming an archive covering meetings since January 2000.

Leas has also worked on improving the portion on the sites devoted to the schools, recently adding the honor rolls for the Greensburg Junior High School and the Greensburg Community High School. Leas said that the additions of the listings have been well received with parents, aunts, uncles and other relatives pleased with the additional bragging rights the feature offers.

Another addition to the schools section is the school community calendar, which Leas said was in response to questions from several parents. All sports events are also listed on the site.

"I do my best to balance sports and academics," said Leas.

He also maintains the community calendar, updating the site with information sent to him by different people and organizations.

Leas said he focuses on putting events from schools and non-for-profit organizations in the listing.

"I do it for the love of the community and to get information out that the community needs to know," said Leas, a controller at Lowe's Pellets and Grain.

Leas spends about two hours each day after work updating the site.

"I guess right now my focus has been education and the government," said Leas. "In terms of the education, I am hoping the schools take over their own pages."

Leas maintains the site for the junior high, the high school and one site for the three elementary schools. The Decatur County Schools already maintain their own pages, with students contributing to the content on some sites.

Leas also has hopes for the government sections, hoping to expand pages for government and for agencies.

"I can see sometime down the road that agencies I maintain for will take over their own pages," said Leas. "It's a worthwhile goal to shoot for, and once more get used to Internet and use of more user friendly software.

"I would encourage people to let me know if something is wrong or incorrect," Leas continued. "Suggestions and corrections are certainly welcome."

The site has seen a lot of visitors, and Leas said the site received its 20,000th hit sometime last Thursday or Friday.

The newest parts of the site are popular with visitors. Since its creation in June 2000, the city section has received 4,531 hits. The police department Web site has received almost 300 hits since its facelift was done a month ago.

"It's obvious people who are looking at this page and checking it are coming back," said Leas. "For people thinking of moving to Greensburg, it's a real good resource to check out the community.

"If companies are thinking of coming into Greensburg," he continued, "they can look at the pages and find out what they need. I hope what they see will encourage them to take a second look."

The community Web site began in late 1999 with the help of the state through www.indico.net, which provided experience and expertise to begin the page.

The group provides templates and server space for communities in the state who wish to start a community webpage.

 

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