Garbage, streetlight site helps in St. Charles

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, June 22, 2016

HAHNVILLE — St. Charles Parish will receive national recognition at the NACo annual conference in July for launching scpreportit.com, an interactive online application where residents can report garbage and streetlight issues.

“We’ve made every effort to increase the efficiency of the departments that GIS supports using innovative approaches to common problems,” said Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Coordinator Luis Martinez. “I’m very thankful we have won this award and that we are able to continue to use GIS to support the mission of the parish departments and increase customer service for our residents.”

The St. Charles Parish GIS Office launched the application in late March to allow residents to better report streetlight outages, garbage bin concerns and debris removal.

The application gives real time updates to residents on the status of their requests while the parish Contract Monitor’s Office facilitates response on the backend. The application has received more than 270 requests since its launch.

Scpreportit.com is set to receive the NACo Achievement Award in the category of Information Technology. NACo achievement awards are given to counties and parishes who establish a program that offers new services to residents, improves the administration of an existing government program, upgrades the working conditions or level of training for employees, enhances the level of citizen participation in, or the understanding of, government programs, provides information that facilitates effective public policy making and promotes intergovernmental cooperation and coordination in addressing shared problems.

“I am so proud that we were chosen for this award and that our department will get some national exposure for their work,” said District VII Councilwoman Julia Fisher-Perrier.

“It is important that we continue to participate in things like this as it helps build our relationship with local governments that deal with the same issues we face in St. Charles.”

The award will be presented to parish officials at a luncheon July 24 at the NACo Annual Conference and Exposition in Los Angeles.

The purpose of the conference, held in a different county each July, is to provide opportunities for county leaders and staff to learn, network and guide the direction of the association’s national advocacy efforts.