The Spring Lake Park City Council on Nov. 3 unanimously, 4-0, approved switching the city’s email and website to a “.gov” domain.
City Administrator Daniel Buccholz said the change responds to a 2023 state mandate requiring any government office involved in election-related activities to use a .gov email domain by June 2026.
“We reviewed our email infrastructure and determined that not only the email piece, but a full domain change will make things more efficient,” Buccholz said.
The new website will be SpringLakeParkMN.gov. The city will keep slpmn.org active and redirect users to the .gov site “until we get people accustomed to that. Same with the emails,” he said.
Responding to an audience question, Buccholz said the website will remain the same aside from the new domain name
Council Member Ken Wendling asked whether the city would need to print new business cards for all staff. Buccholz said the redirect will allow employees to use their existing cards until they run out.
“So you can use all of those cards up, then we’ll order new cards that will have the new addresses on them,” he said.
Council Member Barb Goobboe-Bischof noted the city must cover the cost because the mandate is unfunded. The change will cost about $13,000, Buccholz confirmed.
“That’s a shame,” she said.
“Yeah, it is,” Buccholz replied. “This is probably something we would have held off on until 2029 if we didn’t have this mandate.”
That is the year the city plans to replace its server.
Source: https://www.hometownsource.com/
