Sep 30, 2004 By Paul Sunyak 3 min read

Fayette County Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites said he supports hiring someone to design the county’s Web site because the county has already successfully obtained $20,000 in state grant funds for that purpose. Vicites said Wednesday that state Rep. H. William DeWeese (D-Waynesburg) told him that funds were available, so the county sought the $20,000 as part of a $50,000 state grant that included $15,000 each for the Brown’s Run Trail and the Sheepskin Trail.

Vicites said that he went to Edward A. “Al” Owens of Uniontown, who’s done television commercial and Web site work for Vicites, to get a price estimate to submit to the state to justify the grant request.

“I went to Al Owens for that quote, because I could get it pretty quickly. He gave me a quote, so we would have a figure to apply for the grant,” said Vicites. “He did it for free, just to help me out.”

Vicites said the grant contract is expected to come the county’s way any time, and he doesn’t want to make any changes to it. Commission Chairwoman Angela M. Zimmerlink at Tuesday’s meeting said she’s unearthed four no- or low-cost options for developing the county’s Web site, including two available through the county’s current government affiliations.

However, Vicites and Commissioner Joseph A. Hardy III outvoted Zimmerlink to have the county solicit what’s known as “requests for proposals.” Under that system, anyone can submit their qualifications to the commissioners, who are then free to select anyone they want. They do not have to pick someone based on the lowest price.

Vicites said that he always planned to use the RFP method, regardless of Owens’ role in working up a price estimate for the grant application.

“It always was my intention to RFP it. He (Owens) may or may not even submit a proposal. I told him that if we got the funding we’re RFP’ing for a county Web site,” said Vicites. “RFP’ing it is the right thing to do, making it a competitive situation and giving everybody an opportunity.”

Vicites also said that prior to Tuesday’s meeting, he had no idea that Zimmerlink had found other options because she had never shared that with him.

“To be quite honest about it … everything that Angela said yesterday, she never shared any details at all with me. I had no idea that she was getting free sites,” said Vicites, who added, “Sixty out of 67 counties in Pennsylvania have Web sites. We’re one of seven that don’t. We need to move on that, and get something very outstanding for Fayette County.”