21 June 2007

[net_life] Silverton Redesigns Online Presence, Adds Information

845 My little town as stepped up its net-game.

Silverton, Oregon (birthplace...of me) had an adequate website up until just recently. But now, while probably not winning any design awards, has made itself more informative, easier to navigate, and just plain prettier.

The town, located about 15 miles east of Salem along Highway 213, has a website that now has Java-enabled menus and a new, more unified graphic approach. A sepia-tone predominates, which is appropriate for a town which trades, in large part, on its history as The Typical Oregon Small Town, and a quaint atmosphere, as befits Oregon's Garden City.

What I find interesting, given my public-transit bent, is that Silverton finally has one. The Silver Trolley. This is not a fixed-route service (Anyone of average hardiness could cross the majority of the town, still, in an hour) but rather a dial-a-ride service, operating Monday through Friday from 0830 to 1630...which, I am obliged to say, is a far sight better than I had in Silverton back when I was a neat thing, which is to say, no public transportation–at all.

There was the Silverton Taxi, a one-car operation that ran out of a one-room office on North Water Street across from the Palace Theater, that got me and my brothers home from a town adventure more than once, with bikes in the trunk...but that was pretty much it.

But the new site's worth a check out...http://www.silverton.or.us.

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6 comments:

Iron Fist said...

Jeez, you're from Silverton?

It's a small world. It's a very small world sometimes...

Samuel John Klein said...

Yep. Emphasis on the from. That was my place of birth and existenz for the first 13 years of my life.

100% Oregon-grown country-mouse. That's me.

And you?

Iron Fist said...

Born and raised in San Diego till I was nineteen, lived in Silverton for just a hair over four years as my introduction to Oregon. My mother's family hails from there originally, and though you wouldn't know it from looking at me I'm 1/8th of a Kuenzi.

About every fourth time I'm out at a bar here in Portland it seems like one of my friends will introduce someone to me and point out that so-and-so is from Silverton too and I say, "I'm not from Silverton! Really!"

Anyway, small world. :) Nice blog, btw.

Samuel John Klein said...

Well, you may not actually have originated in Silverton but once you stay there a while an invisible mark has been placed upon you that will follow you the rest of your days.

Sorry to have to break this to you, but there it is.

Kuenzi...boy, it's been years since I espied that name. Regrettably, I don't think it gets you any payments from the Federal government but you at least know that, at one time, the name was slung over half the territory along Cascade Highway beyond where the Oregon Garden is now. And that lake just beyond it, Pettit Lake? that was where the doctor who delivered me lived...the granddad (I think) of that shuttle astronaut.

Yeah, Yeah, I know, TMI, TMI.

I must say, though, I recall picking strawberries in a Kuenzi field when I was but a neat thing, but it's a fuzzy memory. I could have gotten that part wrong.

Thanks for the blog compliment

Anonymous said...

Silverton is great, but I always chuckle because it is the home of Joe Dirt.

Samuel John Klein said...

Well, I found the photo of Silverton from the movie...sadly, I think it's the one in Colorado.

Damn shame. Joe Dirt being from Silverton Oregon would make so...much...sense.