One of the smallest cities in the North Davis-Weber area is taking a big step toward upgrading its ability to communicate with the people who live and work there.

On Wednesday, Sunset City will launch its Sunset on the Go! app. Officials say the app will provide the city's 5,300 residents with easier access to important, accurate information about what's happening in their municipality.

Nicole Supp -- city recorder and office manager at Sunset City -- told the Standard-Examiner that the app's development is part of Mayor Scott Wiggill's mission to modernize aspects of the city's operations.

"He really wants to push us into the new digital age," Supp said. "He's behind an initiative to start a new Facebook page, and this integrates with Facebook. So, it will allow us to get notices out to all of our residents through a variety of media platforms."

The need for a fast, easily-accessible means of city-wide communication became apparent in September 2022 when the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District discovered an equipment malfunction had resulted in an overfeed of fluoride into the city's drinking water, according to Supp.

"It was kind of one of those things where we didn't really have a lot of avenues to get residents the information that they needed," she said.

"So, we were calling all the schools, calling all the commercial places, like, 'Hey, don't drink the water until we get further notice.'"

With the new app, the city will now be able to relay such information with just a few keystrokes.

"We're just really excited to be able to get the information out and, most importantly, accurate information," Supp added. "Because lots of things can spread like wildfire on Facebook. So, it will be nice for us to be able to put out the facts."

In addition to receiving such notifications, residents using the app will also be able to do things like access City Council minutes and agendas, check the city calendar and pay their utility bills.

The latter feature promises to appeal to a citizen base that is becoming younger and more tech-savvy.

Per the most recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, 99.5% of Sunset's households have computer access, while 92.7% of households have broadband internet subscriptions.

Meanwhile, persons 65 and older were estimated to comprise just 10.1% of the city's population.

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