Congrats to Stearns County. According to their web site…

Stearns County’s web site was named the best county government web site in the country in the Center for Digital Government’s Best of the Web awards.

Best of the Web spotlights the top 10 state, county and city web sites throughout the United States each year that demonstrate the highest levels of innovation, functionality and efficiency. The web sites are judged on a wide range of categories, including site accessibility, innovation, cost-savings, ease of use and exceptional service to the public.

Particularly, Stearns County’s web site was highlighted for its straightforward navigation, interactive mapping features, online payment systems, and use of social media.

They do have a really nice site. It’s available in English, Somali and Spanish. You can get a ton of information. I tried looking as if I were relocating (thinking of Ben Winchester’s Brain Gain research) and found they had easy to access to information on specific towns, economic development and recreation. They seem to have a building social media strategy in place too (26 Facebook fans and 219 Twitter followers!).