City of Bowling Green, Kentucky

Site Policies

The statements and policies featured on this page summarize how information that is transmitted through the City of Bowling Green, Kentucky website will be used.

• Copyright Statement
• Privacy Statement
• Social Media Disclaimer
• Web Accessibility Compliance Plan
• Web Site Linking Policy
• Web Calendar Posting Policy
• Contact Information

Copyright

The City of Bowling Green, KY retains the copyright for all web site content on this web site, unless noted.  This means you may not distribute, mirror, modify or re-use the text, graphics, photos, or videos without the express written permission of the City of Bowling Green, KY. You may print copies of the information for your own personal use. All copies must retain any original copyright notices included with such information.

Privacy Statement

The City of Bowling Green, KY is sensitive to the privacy and security interest of the community.  We only collect the personal information necessary to provide the highest level of service. Please note that all non-exempt information collected by the City of Bowling Green, KY web site may be subject to public disclosure under KRS 61.870 et.seq., of the Kentucky Open Records Act. However, public records containing information of a personal nature are protected from disclosure by the personal privacy exemption of state law where the public disclosure thereof would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

All visits to the City of Bowling Green Web site are automatically recorded in a log file maintained on our web server. The information we collect is anonymous: namely, it is general information such as what pages are viewed, what types of software you use to access the site, and what site, if any, linked you to the City of Bowling Green web site.  Other information is collected on a voluntary basis when users send or input information into the site.  This information is used only to provide or improve city services and is not shared with other organizations for commercial purposes. Personal data in our possession is maintained and used in ways that respect individual privacy.

Social Media Disclaimer

The City of Bowling Green makes use of social media to share information, reinforce messages, and provide an opportunity to distribute information quickly and efficiently to a large audience and may be used on a day to day basis and during emergency situations. The City’s use of social media is for informational and marketing purposes only and, despite efforts to keep the City provided information timely and accurate, users should be aware that the information made available by the City may not be timely, accurate or complete. The City is not responsible for the security of social networking sites and applications that reside outside the City’s domain.

The purpose of these sites is to provide timely information regarding the City of Bowling Green to its residents, businesses and visitors. The City encourages and welcomes participation, but reserves the right to monitor and delete comments in accordance with its policies. Once posted, the City reserves the right, but does not assume the obligation, to delete submissions that are illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, invade privacy, that support or oppose political candidates or ballot propositions, that contain lewd or vulgar language, that contain personal attacks of any kind, that contain offensive comments that target or disparage any ethnic, racial or religious group or which infringe upon the intellectual property of others. Further, the City also reserves the right to delete comments/posts that are spam or include links to other sites, clearly off topic or advocate illegal activity, promote particular services, products or organizations or infringe on copyrights or trademarks. 

It is impossible for the City of Bowling Green to review a post or comment before it becomes publicly readable and the City does not necessarily review posted content on a regular basis. Therefore, be advised that comments expressed on these sites, other than those posted by the City of Bowling Green, do not necessarily reflect the opinions and position of the City of Bowling Green or its employees. Any advertisements posted by the public do not reflect any City endorsement or opinion. The City of Bowling Green does not take responsibility for and disclaims all liability for any content posted by the public on social media sites.

Communications sent via the internet or through social media sites shall in no way be deemed to constitute official or legal notice for any purpose to the City of Bowling Green or any of its employees, where notice to the City is required by any law, rule, regulation or contract. Social media sites are not intended for reporting emergencies or other violations of laws, regulations or City ordinances. Emergencies should be reported by calling 911. If you post to any City of Bowling Green social media site, we will do our best to respond as promptly as possible during the hours of Mon – Fri, 8:00am to 4:00pm. If your enquiry falls outside of our regular hours, we will try to respond when office hours resume.

Further, please be advised that you participate at your own risk, taking personal responsibility for comments, username and any information provided. Content posted on social media sites should not be construed as private or confidential and the posting of comments and private information on social media sites are visible to all. In addition, posts to social media sites may constitute public records subject to disclosure pursuant to Kentucky’s Open Records Act. 

Web Accessibility Compliance Plan

The BGKY.org website is an increasingly important resource for citizens interacting with local government. Many times it serves as the first point of contact with our organization. It is critical that our website be accessible to everyone, including those with visual, auditory, physical, cognitive, or other disabilities.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1974 requires all federal entities to provide equal access to electronic services, programs, and content. While not a federal agency, we seek to meet this standard to contribute to the inclusiveness of our community, while also decreasing our exposure to sanctions, fines, and lawsuits.

As is the case with many organizations, our website was developed over time, by many different departments, and with varying amounts of attention paid to the accessibility needs of people with disabilities. For this reason, bringing our site into compliance will not be a quick or easy task. However, a plan has been established and is currently underway. An outline of this plan can be viewed below:

1. Establish Scope and Target
   1. Identify and select a standard to follow.
   2. Define which sections need to be brought under compliance.
2. Assess the Current Situation
   1. Select and implement tool that will audit and continually monitor areas for accessibility issues.
   2. Run initial evaluation on sites that need to be brought under compliance.
3. Prioritize Solutions
   1. Prioritize high impact, easily addressed barriers.
      1. Frequently reused areas such as CSS and base templates (headers, footers, etc.) are a good place to begin making widespread improvements in a short amount of time.
2. Prioritize important functionality, high use content, and key entry points to the sites.
4. Implement Repairs
   1. Estimate time and costs associated with the needed changes. We need to be sure that the time and cost associated with the change is acceptable given our available resources.
   2. Assign repair work to either developer or content editors (based on each issue).
5. Review and Evaluate Achievements
   1. Once repairs are complete, run tests with auditing software to ensure the issue has been resolved.
   2. Document any outstanding issues that can be addressed in the future, or as part of ongoing maintenance. 

The City of Bowling Green is now updating its website to meet W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0), Level A criterion. You may view a copy of our proposed standards by using the following link:

Web Accessibility Standards (Proposed)

Web Site Linking Policy

The City of Bowling Green’s web site was created to provide useful, city related information to citizens and visitors.  Bgky.org is not a forum for public communication and debate.   In order to maintain the integrity of the web site, and preserve the non-public forum of bgky.org, links from the City's web site will follow the criteria that have been established.

Links from the following categories or websites are allowed:

• Chamber of Commerce
• Child Abuse / Family Violence / Rape Crisis Assistance
• Government
• Health and Emergency Services
• Media
• Non Profit Youth Services
• Organizations funded by or affiliated with the City of Bowling Green, Kentucky
• Refugee / Migrant Services
• Regional Cultural Institutions
• Schools and Libraries
• Tourism Commission/Visitor's Bureau
• Utilities

The City of Bowling Green will not provide a link from the City's web site to: third party aggregator sites, sites for organizations that do not have a physical presence within Warren County, sites promoting illegal activities, sexually explicit sites, libelous or otherwise defamatory content; sites belonging to or supporting a political affiliation; sites which furthers the agenda of a political organization or candidate running for office; sites that exhibits hate, bias, discrimination; or sites containing information violating any of the City's affirmative action or equal opportunity policies.

Hypertext links to external web sites and pages may be removed or replaced at the sole discretion of the City of Bowling Green.

The determination of links shall be made by the City's Systems Analyst, with the approval and review of the Director of Information Technology.

An appeal to that determination may be filed in writing with the Office of the City Clerk within twenty (20) days of the determination. Appeals shall be decided by the City Manager within thirty (30) days of receipt of the written appeal. All decisions of the City Manager shall be final.

Web Calendar Posting Policy

Non-profit organizations that are funded by or affiliated with the City of Bowling Green will be allowed to submit events to be placed on the City’s web site calendar. The City’s Systems Analyst shall determine the events to be listed. The appeal process will be the same as listed above regarding the website linking policy.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or concerns about the policies or statements listed here contact us by one of these methods.

Email: webmaster@bgky.org
Phone: 270-393-3488
Address: Systems Analyst, 1017 College St., Bowling Green, KY 42101