At the last Fort Thomas city council meeting, residents spoke about the difficulties in finding information on the city’s website. It’s been an ongoing concern. Now, a solution may be just a few clicks away.
A new “Welcome to Fort Thomas” app and website, launched by the city’s Economic Development team, offers direct access to local business and to information about “all things Fort Thomas.”
The site is built on an application first introduced during the Fort Thomas sesquicentennial celebration in 2017. That app, from a company then known as Tour Buddy, was designed to provide interactive tours of the city.
Economic Development Director Chanda Calentine and her assistant Sam Shelton had been working on a project to provide visitors and residents more information and access to the city’s business community. They also had been listening — to businesses, residents, visitors and others seeking information online. The result is a phone app and website offering access to wide array of city information including businesses, parks and recreation, nonprofits, health and wellness information and city events.
A new life for an old resource
The original Tour Buddy app was basically a tourism program. Downloaded to your phone, it provided tours, pointing out historic buildings, artworks or other points of interest along a route.
Local historian and longtime resident Chuck Keller brought the tour app idea to a group planning sesquicentennial activities. Developed with Keller’s help, the app provided historical and walking tours of various areas of the city, and was a highlight of the 150-year celebration.
“However, afterwards, the steam kind of slowed down. People weren’t using it as much, and the information on it wasn’t as updated as it should have been,” said Shelton.
The app was hard to update as well, he said, and so things stayed stagnant for a few years. Yet, change was around the corner.
Council member Adam Blau took up the dormant app as a cause and pushed for his colleagues and staff to revisit it and to consider updates and changes to make it more relevant. He and Keller both approached the city to ask if the app could be reworked into something more useful.
With a new development director on board and a renewed commitment by the city to upgrade its facilities and technology, things came together, Shelton said.
“The app was originally for doing walking tours and stuff, but we saw this as an opportunity to do something that no one also had,” he said.
In the meantime, the owners of the Tour Buddy app had gone through their own reorganization and rebranding. When the city approached the company with the idea to add city information, company officials agreed to help develop a new use for their app.
What’s on the app?
The question may be what’s not on the app. Right now, the website is accessible but still under some construction. The phone app, however, provides a well-organized array of tabs, each leading to different section of information.
Shelton walked through the app on the phone. The tours still exist, he said, but now there is so much more. It’s designed to be a one-stop shop, he said.
After a brief introduction, a series of photos represent tabs to different sections of information. The first on the list is “Events.” This goes directly to a calendar of city events such as the senior games or the Farmer’s Market.
Next is the “Parks and Recreation” tab leading to further sections for parks, facilities, fields, shelters and trail maps. Click on any to find full information on each of these city amenities. The third tab leads to the original city tours and historic information.
Two links at the bottom of every page lead people to “Groups” or “Businesses.” Those seeking a calendar of upcoming city meetings and basic city information will find a link directly to the city’s website through the groups link. Also under groups are “Community Organizations,” “Community Partners,” “Education,” “Local News” and “Social Clubs.”
Shelton notes the addition of the community partners tab, featuring local nonprofits and county resources, was a direct request from area businesses.
“Our businesses here are very generous and partnering up with nonprofits doing fundraisers for them. A lot of them donate to the schools as well as nonprofits. And so we wanted to showcase that.”
Support for local business
Click on the “Businesses” link, and you’ll find subsections on where to stay in town, where to eat, where to shop, entertainment, realtors, insurance and finance and home improvement companies. Each of the sub tabs leads directly to each business’s website, social media and other information.
Another request from businesses was the addition of a “Hire Fort Thomas” tab to advertise openings directly. Another sub tab is devoted to the city’s DORA districts.
Finding what you need is simple, Shelton said. For example, “If you go to the ‘Eat and Drink,’ you would be able to find Fort Thomas Coffee’s website and the social media attached to it.”
He pointed out one link from the hiring tab leads to a cashier job at Cobblestone Cafe. Click on the job title, and it includes a direct “Apply Now” link.
An ongoing work in progress
“The site is updated literally weekly, because we continually add stuff to it. We want to be as up-to-date as possible for people to use,” Shelton said.
“So if you’re a resident here in Fort Thomas or if you’re coming to Fort Thomas and you’re like, ‘oh, I want to know what restaurants can I go to.’ Or, ‘I need to find a bank when I move here,’ you can go on and look that up. You can go directly onto a bank’s website instead of searching for ‘banks in Fort Thomas.’ Instead, you’ll be able to go on the app and just find a list [of all the banks] here.”
Improving direct access to promote local businesses was key, of course, “We are encouraging businesses to follow us on Instagram because if they do, we’ll follow them right back, and we’ll share anything that they post on their social media,” he said…”We want people to come out and support our businesses, and we want everyone to know what we’re up to next.”
The site continues to evolve, and Shelton said he sees that as ongoing. “It’s literally an app that we want our community to utilize, to experience and to engage in. And, it’s constantly changing.”
Right now, to access the app, which is available for both iOS and Android, it can be found at the various app stores. The web version is still in development but should be available soon.