Jackie Thompson, president and lead designer for Roxboro Media, told Person County commissioners pretty much what they already knew last week as she made a pitch for her firm to completely revamp the county Web site.

Thompson’s presentation was one of several pertaining to matters that could impact the county’s fiscal 2009 budget that commissioners entertained during their annual retreat held Feb. 7. Thompson’s presentation came toward the end of the three-hour session.

Roxboro Media, Thompson said, would like an opportunity to create a Web site for the county that would “tell the world who we are, what’s important to us, to encourage business, tourism, new residents and returning residents.”

The existing Web site essentially does none of those things, she indicated, and thereby can cause potential business prospects and others to “pass us by.”

A redesigned Web site could be a “systems resource for finding materials and marketing to let the secret out that ‘It’s better in Person,’” Thompson said, referencing a slogan long used by the Roxboro Area Chamber of Commerce.

In her presentation Thompson outlined three questions, the answers to which help reflect whether a Web site is effective: “Is it aesthetically pleasing? Does it function well? Is it content rich enough to answer [a visitor’s] questions?”

Referencing the existing county Web site, Thompson said, “When it comes to our presence in the marketplace, we don’t seem to have very much of one. … When it comes to companies looking at us, they don’t see our value [on the Web site]. They have to read about it; they have to dig for it. We get passed over very easily.”

Thompson showed slides of Web sites from several other communities, including Durham, Wake County, Granville County and Santa Clara, Calif., each with somewhat different approaches. She indicated that the Wake County and Santa Clara sites were particularly effective in reflecting their communities. The Durham site, she noted, was not strong on aesthetics but that was trumped by the site’s rich content, plus Durham’s location within the Research Triangle Park, which in itself is a draw for visitors to the site.

All other Web sites represent competition for Person County, Thompson said, because they’re all communities trying to do the same thing — attract new businesses with more jobs and increase tax revenues.

The Web site redesign that Roxboro Media envisions for the county, according to Thompson, would offer each county department its own page that could be locked down so that each department could maintain and update its own page without affecting other parts of the site. Also, she said, such updates could be made from any computer, and only minimal training of county employees would be required.

Doing nothing about the Web site, Thompson speculated, could cause business prospects to continue to pass by Person County instead of possibly locating here and bringing new jobs and tax dollars, which could help reduce pleas to commissioners for more funding, such as they have heard lately. A better Web site also could be helpful to the county’s retaining its “best and brightest” young people, many of whom are leaving the county never to return.

“I agree our county government Web site could use a good bit of work,” commented Commissioner Larry Yarborough, who wondered aloud whether the Economic Development Commission would be the more appropriate “portal” for a new Web site initiative. “There’s more than just the government that needs to buy into this,” he said.

Commissioner Kyle Puryear observed, “The EDC has a separate Web site, and I think they’ve done a good job with that. Our Web site is primitive at best. You have pages for every department, but when you click on those pages there’s nothing there but white space.”

Thompson said Roxboro Media would revamp the county Web site in three phases — including a survey of what the public thinks is important to have on the site, the actual design of the site and lastly the submission of the site to a variety of Internet search engines — at a total cost of $51,350.

Thompson reminded commissioners that a Web site should be targeted toward those who will use it. “It’s not for us, it’s for them,” she said.

“It’s about time for us to get our little secret out and let everybody know that we’re not just sitting up here on the Virginia line twiddling our thumbs and getting lost in time,” Thompson said.

Commissioners took no action on the matter at the retreat but indicated they could discuss the issue further during their budget work sessions.