DATE: Monday, March 17, 1997                TAG: 9703150292

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D5   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   68 lines

MUNICIPAL SERVICES NOW INCLUDE A WEB PRESENCE

You may not be able to fight City Hall through the Internet, but you can e-mail it. Not to mention log into it to check on public services, look for a city job, and in the future perhaps apply for a yard sale permit. Three South Hampton Roads cities - Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake - have established virtual city halls on the World Wide Web. Suffolk and Portsmouth will be following soon.

Norfolk's official city site gets down to business, opening with a view of the lighted holiday skyline and a straightforward design, not counting the little ship sailing across an animated version of the city seal. Promoting economic development is a centerpiece of many city Web sites, and Norfolk's is no exception. The ``About Norfolk'' section is geared toward prospective businesses, with information on retail sales, relocation incentives and more.

On Norfolk's site, check the calendar for Festevents (get ready for the Doo-Dah Parade on April 4), learn what to do about abandoned cars, or find out where you can get a dog license.

Lost in the virtual city hall? Jump to the search engine. The phrase ``property taxes'' yielded 20 hits. Ouch.

Chesapeake's official site, featuring an image of the distinctive blue-glass City Hall, is perhaps even more focused on citizens and city government. One section offers the current agenda for the City Council and an archive of agendas back to June 1996.

Looking for a job with Chesapeake? Visit the Personnel Department for a listing of all openings. Attention, tech-types: You have until April 17 to apply for the post of director of information technology, grabbing a salary of approximately $61,000 to $93,000.

Virginia Beach's official site is the slickest looking of the local Web spots, opening with a lush photo of the Oceanfront against a background resembling waves of sand.

Virginia Beach obviously makes a strong pitch to tourists at its site, linking to a separate site with information on hotels and restaurants.

But Pam Ford, microsystems analyst for the city's public information office, who oversaw the site's creation, says information on city services, jobs, and permits and licenses have been the big draws on the site, which gets about 150,000 hits a month.

``It's just another tool in the toolbox'' for communicating with residents, Ford said. And, though officials have to keep in mind that most citizens cannot access the Web as easily as picking up a printed brochure, the site could become an even more valuable tool for citizens to deal with the city.

For instance, officials have discussed using the site to let residents fill out common forms online. A user could register for a recreation class, reserve a park facility, get a library card or apply for a yard sale or building permit. Farther down the line, Ford said, depending on security advances in online transactions, residents might even be able to pay their taxes or settle a parking ticket through the Web site.

On the Suffolk city Web site, set to debut in late March, interactivity is one topic webmaster Christopher Layton, a senior administrative analyst, hopes to address.

Initially, the site will be largely informational, offering history, a guestbook, a city government section, community calendars, demographics, utility information and business and industry details.

But later, Layton said, more e-mail addresses for individual city employees will be added. And officials probably will look into offering such interactive features as a community bulletin board.

Portsmouth's city site is on the way also, said LaVoris Pace, administrative coordinator for the city's department of marketing and communications.

(AT) PILOT ONLINE: Links to these city sites, plus many other community sites in Hampton Roads, are always available on the Web Links page of Hampton Roads Online, in Pilot Online's Community section. Included are several Peninsula cities' sites.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu