BULLARD — The Bullard city council tabled a decision on moving forward on a project for a new website design due to a lack of information.

The council approved discussions with a Tyler website design firm, Group M7, in April. The company is also contracted to create a website for the Bullard Economic Development Corporation (BEDCO). Mayor Pam Frederick said the goal was to create web pages with similar themes to create continuity between the websites.

City Manager Larry Morgan said the company is proposing to create a website that the city staff can manually update without too much hassle.

“This will be a website that is not only attractive, but informative,” Morgan said. “We were having a lot of trouble keeping things up. The mayor is currently listed twice, once as a council member, and once as the mayor. Those type of things will cease to happen.”

But council members said they were confused by language in the proposal from the company. Finance Director Brent Stephenson said the document quoted a price of $5,420. Frederick said she talked with the owner of the company and he agreed to lower the price tag to $4,995, but it had not been put into writing.

Officials said language contradicted itself within the proposal if design services were included in the price or if they were extra. There was also an option to include email, which could tack on an added $39 per user.

“The emails are going to be free,” Stephenson told members. “What we are going to be doing is going through Google business, since we already own the domain Bullardtexas.net.”

City Attorney Charles Morton said the city would need to check if sales tax applied to the purchase, and newly elected council member Clay Thompson said he would like to see a contract to ensure a $425 per year payment to host the site was consistent from year to year.

“I would just want to be sure its not $425 the first year and a thousand the second year,” Thompson said.

Morgan said Group M7 is a reputable company and has been in business for many years, but before a contract would be signed, he and Morton would look it over.

Stephenson said the city is above projected revenues, and has money in the coffers to spend on the project, even with the passing of a $7,800 expense in April to hire a new police officer.  

“We have more than adequate amount to do this small amendment,” he said.

Council members said they plan to readdress the issue on May 29.