SYDNEY - The Sydney Tar Ponds Agency is getting a new website.

MediaSpark Inc. of Sydney has won a $150,000 one-year contract to update and maintain the existing site, www.gov.ns.ca/stpa.

"We plan to make the website a key part of our efforts to ensure open and transparent communications throughout the big cleanup," Frank Potter, the agency's director of operations, said in a release Friday.

"Residents, reporters, contractors and interested citizens across Canada will find it a ready source of information about every aspect of the cleanup."

MediaSpark is a software development and new-media production firm that has won international awards. It developed the tar ponds agency's existing website as well as two for the Joint Action Group.

The company will install a web camera at the coke ovens and develop a gallery of several hundred historical and contemporary photographs of the tar ponds and coke ovens.

Carol Kennedy of North River has been commissioned to photograph the area. The two sites have undergone significant changes in the last three years, including removal of derelict structures and debris.