I see posts in Facebook groups or I am at a city meeting and hear people complain about problems in the parks, and sometimes I ask, and other times I don’t, did you report it?
Hartford’s 311 is where you can report problems to the City. It can concern the parks or any other non-emergency issue. At the bottom is a new (5/16) trifold regarding how to access 311. The City transitioned from SeeClickFix to PublicStuff about a year ago, granted this was not well publicized.
If you choose to set up an account, it will store your issues in your profile. I prefer the App on my cell, as the GPS finds the location for me and I can take a picture and upload it. As you know, a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes it saves time locating the area or makes it clear what is wrong. Another reason I prefer entering the information into either the web-based tool or the App, is that the issue is stated exactly how I described it. The person on the phone will naturally interpret what you are saying as they type it in.
You will need to select a category for your complaint. After a request is submitted it goes directly to the appropriate department, the employee(s) listed within the workflow will receive a notification. They are responsible for updating statuses; received, in progress and when it is completed. Good news! As of July 1st, you can submit your problem under “General” and the 311 folks will find the right department for you!
The most common issues from the parks are bulky waste, knocked over garbage cans, litter, overturned porta-potties, and graffiti. I want to offer a tip. Don’t just automatically pick “Parks”, look at the categories and decide where it would be best to submit the problem. Even if the problem is in a park, it may not be a task performed by a park worker. Bulky waste needs to be reported under “Sanitation” regardless where it is located. Another example is lighting, regardless of where the lighting is located, lighting can be either city-owned or, more commonly, owned by Eversource. I recommend that you choose “Street Lighting”. It is difficult to tell the difference between Eversource and city -owned, but the easiest way to figure it out is by appearance. The very tall aluminum lights are usually Eversource. They all have poll numbers on them, sometimes they are placed high on the poll. That is all the info Eversource really needs to identify the location, but by filling in the street information gives them extra information. The new 311 response folks are working on having those go directly to Eversource. The decorative lighting, black, with lanterns, are mostly owned by the city and sometimes they have numbers, and sometimes they don’t. So, try to give all the information you can regarding the location along with the GPS location. This is where I think the picture really helps. I try to include a building in the background. It is difficult to know in the daytime what lights are out. A fuller explanation about graffiti will be covered in another blog, but here are a couple of tips; take a picture and add descriptive information in the comment box for each area such by the pool. Usually GPS states the park you are in, but not where in the park. The problems to report under “Parks” are; litter, tipped over garbage cans, tipped porta-potties, or broken equipment. Each park has a day of the week for general clean-up when the litter is picked up, the grass is mowed and the field lines are put down or refreshed. Please consider joining a Knox Clean-Up event in any park. Or, do as I do, just go over however often you can and pick up litter for an hour. Another suggestion is to carry a plastic bag with you when you go for a walk, and when your bag is full, you are done. Please pick up glass bottles and dispose of these anytime you see them. Broken glass is dangerous, and it damages tires on bikes, wheelchairs and strollers.
What do you do if someone is playing on the field that you have a permit for? Approach them with your documentation, they may be unfamiliar with the field numbers or that there is a reservation system. If they insist that they, too, have a reservation for the same field you should contact, either Brenda Padilla at 860-757-4951 or Tom Baptist at 860-372-2816. You can still report it on 311, to document that there was a problem, but needless to say, you most likely want to resolve the problem asap. I believe that the same is true of missing lines, or equipment.
How fast do things get fixed? 311 has asked the departments to provide expectations for how long it will take to fix the problem in their initial response. Janice Castle, in Community Services, will be creating reports to see how well the system is working, as well as to see where improvements can be made. But I believe that as a resident, we really just want the bulky waste removed, the trash picked up and overall a well-run city. I hope this has helped you understand how 311 works.
Do you have more questions about 311? Please comment below, I will respond within 48 hours. My next blog will be about the Graffiti problem/solution in Hartford. If you want to be notified of the next blog, just click subscribe at the bottom.
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