FOXBORO - Fred Flintstone, the Stone Age cartoon hubby who uses his bare feet to power his car, might also enjoy taking a spin on the town's Web site.

But others are less satisfied with the primitive.

At the urging of Finance Director Randy Scollins, selectmen have authorized spending $6,495 to have the site, townfoxborough.us, made worthy of 21st century users.

"The town is void of a vibrant central Web presence that many other towns have developed," Scollins wrote in a proposal to selectmen to bring the site up to date. "We have an inefficient town Web site as well as several 'rogue' Web sites that have sprouted up in the absence of a town-managed Web site that supports the community."

The work is expected to be completed by Jan. 1 by Virtual Town Hall, a professional developer of municipal Web pages, Scollins said. Created a number of years ago, the site has links to various town departments, but because of budget constraints most of the department pages were never fully developed, Scollins said.

The inspections department's link was upgraded to allow visitors to download permit application forms. A payments link allows residents to pay real estate excise tax and other town bills online.

It was not for lack of good intentions that the town's Web site has fallen short.

More than 2 1/2 years ago, selectmen established a committee to study and recommend how to address the need.

"After a year and a half of thorough review, the committee recommended to the board of selectmen that the town Web site be completely redeveloped by an established development company, rather than by 'independents,' " Scollins wrote.

Selectmen at the time accepted the recommendation, and the town solicited quotes and picked Virtual Town Hall for its experience and "very competitive pricing."

Nonetheless, with budgets tight, the town was unable to fit the project into its fiscal 2008 or '09 budgets, he wrote.

Funds for the upgrade will come out of an economic development account the town set up for revenue received through the town's issuance of liquor licenses to businesses at Patriot Place.

The town receives a one-time special payment of $5,000 for each of those licenses, and the account now has $30,000 in it.

While allowing the town to issue 12 new licenses dedicated to Patriot Place, the Legislature required that those payments be dedicated to economic development. Scollins said having a vibrant and useful Web site is clearly of economic value to a community, allowing potential investors and others to quickly access useful information.

Selectmen agreed, voting 5-0 to allow the spending.