The Elmont Chamber of Commerce, seeking to broaden its horizons while at the same time trying to foster a "small town" feeling among merchants and residents, has created its own website on the internet.

The site, address www.elmont.org, is an outgrowth of the ongoing efforts of the chamber's unify and beautify committee, and is being put together by Maughns Computer Consultants Limited.

"The idea [for the web site] grew out of several conversations among members of the unify and beautify committee, and our sentiment was, while many chambers have gotten on the web, no one has done a site centered around community, as well as business-mindedness," explained Aubrey Phillips, who not only serves on the committee, but also works for Maughns.

"We like to think of our site as a community online," he continued.

Though still in its early stages, the website already features information about area schools, businesses, social activities, and civic associations.

"To get the website up and running, we developed a concept called 'The Founding Member Program.' What that means is, for a fee of $600, our founding members will get a founding member page on the site, and if you have an existing e-mail address, we'll link it to our site," Phillips said.

"Essentially, that was our incentive to get businesses in Elmont to go online. Now, we're offering the same deal to the civics and the schools, but in their case, instead of asking them to bear the financial burden directly, we're seeking sponsorships."

Phillips continued, "Getting the civics, other community organizations, and the schools involved is extremely important to us because the intent of the site is to be a vehicle for creating more of a sense of community here.

"At the same time, we also want to encourage local residents to appreciate what we have in Elmont, both in terms of the social fabric of our community and our business districts, and lastly, we want to encourage people who don't live here to come and see Elmont for themselves."

According to Phillips, in the last seven days, without any kind of publicity whatsoever, the site received 3,500 "hits"; meaning the website was contacted by individuals using their own personal computers at least 3,500 times.

In addition to the site being community-oriented rather than business-oriented in focus, the site also features an "online school."

At present, for a nominal fee, people accessing the site can take one or more of up to 180 different "classes" in subject matter ranging from basic computing to business math to stress management.

Package deals on the courses are also available for chamber and civic association members.

"The latest thing we've done is linked our site to the official site for the upcoming Goodwill Games," Phillips said. "Now we're hoping ¬ we've made the request via e-mail ¬ that they'll reciprocate with a link that will allow people to get to our site from theirs"