During a Monday council meeting, city officials said there was no reason to believe the online registration system would experience problems, given that it had operated without a hitch the previous year, the Daily Northwestern reported.
Residents still had the ability to register in-person at the Levy Senior Center, and the department has already processed the near 750 in-person applications they received last weekend. Officials report that despite Web registration being taken offline, total first-day registrations exceeded last year's numbers by 300.
City officials decided to take a week to address the problem, and will reopen online registration to the public Feb. 17. The weeklong waiting period will help give staff crucial time to perform a “full stress test” before the forms go live again.
Evanston CIO Luke Stowe said potential issues have been identified and that the city will be working with its software vendor to prevent a repeat of the situation.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect new information from the City of Evanston.