It’s a small town civics lesson, now on the internet.

Thanks for the efforts of Bluffton officials, all Bluffton ordinances are now available online for anyone to read.

The announcement was made at the June 22 council meeting. The meeting's agenda is attached at the bottom of this story.

CLICK HERE to view the ordinance folder, located on the Village of Bluffton website. The project cost $14,000 and has 1,193 pages went printed on a computer printer.

This project did not happen overnight, taking several years to produce. The Bluffton council’s ordinance committee, meeting almost weekly for the past several months, pieced the ordinances together.

Once the council approved the work of the committee, the ordinances were put together by American Legal Publishing Corp., of Cincinnati, which hosts the material, now available on the village website.

On the website, viewers will find the ordinances listed in the following format:
• Title I: General provisions
• Title III: Administration
• Title V: Public works
• Title VII: Traffic code
• Title IX: General regulations
• Title XI: Business regulations
• Title XIII: General offenses
• Title XV: Land usage
• Table of special ordinances
• Parallel references 

Each of the above folders contain additional folders.

For example: 
Open Title III: Administration. A drop down view will reveal files on:
•  Chapter 30: General provisions
• Council meetings
• Pay Frequency
• Authorization for administration foreclosure proceedings
• Chapter 31: Village council

Open Chapter 31 and a drop down view will reveal files on “Council rules.” When opened, viewers have the option of sharing, downloading, bookmarking or printing the rules. Those rules cover 16 pages of text.

The rules also include the order of business of a council meeting, which include 19 individual items. A screen shot of Council rules is at the bottom of this story.

Prior to the ordinances online availability, the procedure to locate information was cumbersome at best. The online availability not only speeds up the process of finding ordinances, it also makes them available to the general public, thus enabling more transparency to residents.