The City of Sequim launches its new city and Sequim tourism sites on Monday, Oct. 24, at www.sequimwa.gov and www.visitsunnysequim.com.

They are designed to help users find information more easily and to provide better service to customers, said Barbara Hanna, communications and marketing director.

New features for the city’s site include multiple navigation paths to find information, a comprehensive calendar and a community spotlight that allows featured news to be highlighted. The site includes an emergency alert center that drops down over the page if there is a true emergency. An e-mail notification sign-up is available for news that interests residents. There is also a photo gallery of the city and community events with access for residents to submit photos.

The new tourism website is the official site for visitors to Sequim and highlights local lodging, restaurants, shopping, tourist attractions and activities. It features a calendar of events with community contributions allowed, an electronic postcard for people to send and a photo gallery and spotlight of featured events.

Hanna said the city updated the websites because both were made several years ago and the technology was antiquated. Those sites also relied on the city’s IT staff or outside resources to update pages. The new city site allows all departments to update more easily.

Website developer Civic Plus created the sites, with approval forcosts up to $30,000. The current website, www.ci.sequim.wa.us, eventually will change to www.sequim.wa.gov but will remain active for some time after the launch.