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Politics & Government

Clawson Could Become the First City in Michigan with an App

City government, businesses, residents, schools and visitors could benefit from a municipal application for smartphones, developer tells City Council.

GPS location directions for restaurants, streaming city TV and touch-to-call directory capabilities are three of the many features that could be included in a municipal mobile application compatible with smartphones – and a local developer wants to make Clawson the first city in Michigan to have one.

Stephen Thornhill from Kart Media Group, a Birmingham-based digital media agency that has designed apps for HGTV, presented his idea to the Clawson City Council at its regular meeting Tuesday night. He began by explaining that if the council agreed to move forward with the app it would be the first Michigan city to have one.

“People are starting to rely on their mobile devices more and more for information over their computers,” Thornhill said, citing a Nielsen study that revealed almost half of Americans mobile subscribers own smartphones. “Therefore, if the city adopted this application they are giving themselves an opportunity to get in on this technology before everyone else and reap the benefits of doing so.”

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Thornhill identified four stakeholders in the application as:

  1. , which could use the app to stream council meetings
  2. , which could use an interactive calendar feature to remind people of school events
  3. businesses that could use it as a source of advertisement and to give GPS directions
  4. the wider community, including the , which could let potential customers know what vendors are selling each week.

“However, this is just a rough outline of possible features the app could have,” Thornhill emphasized. “We would work with all the parties involved to make the app best suit everyone’s needs.”

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Thornhill estimated the application would cost the city a one-time fee of $8,750 with a $500 yearly fee for hosting. He said those numbers would change depending on how often information would need to be updated and if the city or Kart Media Group would be responsible for doing so.

“I love this idea and that we would be the first to have it,” Clawson Mayor Penny Luebs said. “I like the forward thinking nature of it and that fact we would be another venue for us to engage with citizens and visitors to our community.”

City Attorney Jon Kingsepp, who brought the representative from Kart to the meeting, said he talked with the city’s Chamber of Commerce, members of the school district and businesses, all of whom said they liked the idea.

“I actually haven’t had any negative remarks yet,” Kingsepp said.

He also thinks it might attract businesses to Clawson because they would be able to seek the advantages of being on the app. “However, putting it all together is the hard part,” he said.

Kingsepp said the next step would be meeting with the various groups that would be a part of the application and figuring out pricing and hosting issues. He said he would have a more detailed document explaining what exactly would be on the app and other considerations for the City Council before the end of July.

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