GREAT BEND, Kan. — As a part of ongoing efforts to modernize and enhance digital services, the City of Great Bend announced on Friday that it is transitioning its website and staff emails to a .gov domain. The new address, www.greatbendks.gov, will take effect when the city launches its updated site later this spring.
“We are very excited for this step in our website transformation,” said Public Relations Director Addison Crites. “We have spent meaningful time and effort these past six months upgrading our communication platforms to provide easy access for our citizens. Switching our domain to .gov ensures to the public that we are the first and foremost source of all city-related information.”
This shift will bring a higher level of transparency to website visitors as .gov domains are only available to U.S.-based government organizations.
Achieving .gov status requires accreditation and verification by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). This process includes meeting the U.S. Census Bureau’s criteria for classifying governments. To be considered a government, entities must exist as an organized entity, have governmental character and substantial autonomy.
Entities must fall under a recognized class of government such as municipal corporations, public corporations or bodies corporate and politic. Governmental character is established when entity officers are either popularly elected or appointed by public officials. Substantial autonomy entails that an entity possesses fiscal and administrative independence.
IT Director James Cell and Assistant Systems Administrator Robby Wilcox handled the accreditation process for the city.
“This move also strengthens our cybersecurity,” Cell said. “We have added DNSSEC records to provide authentication and integrity for DNS data, and because .gov domains are only issued to verified government entities, it becomes much harder for malicious actors to create fake websites or email addresses that could be used in phishing scams.”
The city is taking a department-by-department approach when moving email accounts from .net to .gov to make the migration a smooth experience.
“This gradual approach has helped minimize disruption and ease any concerns,” Cell said. “For most users, the transition has been seamless. The only exception is for those who use OneDrive or SharePoint. Shared files may take 24-48 hours to fully sync with desktop apps. During this time, all files remain available online.”
Only three departments remain that need to make the switch. The city expects to complete the full transformation by the end of the month.
Emails sent to the previous .net address will continue to deliver for up to nine years. However, the city encourages the public to adopt the new domain early. For the most up-to-date staff contact information, please visit the city’s website, hover over the “Departments” tab and select the first link listed titled “Staff Directory”.
The City of Great Bend appreciates everyone’s patience as it completes this important email update.
The new domain will activate with the launch of the updated website later this spring to streamline all changes simultaneously. Visitors who use the www.greatbendks.net address
For related questions, please contact the city at 620-793-4111.
