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Council wants to control Web site ads

Visitors to Murrysville's Web site soon will be greeted with a video message from Mayor Joyce Somers.

An agreement with CGI Communications to provide welcome videos for the municipal Web site was approved 5-2 at last week's council meeting. Councilmen Larry Nicolette and Dennis Pavlik dissented.

Also, there will be no 'adult' ads on the Web site. The contract prevents "offensive" businesses from advertising.

Last month, officials worried that companies such as Murrysville Video News, an adult bookstore on Route 22, could buy ad space.

Nicolette said he couldn't agree with that policy because it limited companies that could advertise instead of regulating the content of the advertisement itself.

Businesses that want to advertise will have to pay either $2,995 for a package that includes a 30-second video and a link to its Web site or $5,995 for a package that includes a 60-second video, link to its Web site and placement in Google's search engine.

Local businesses do not need to buy advertisements for the welcome videos to be placed on the municipal Web site.

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