PINE BLUFF, Ark. — A new way of reporting issues happening in Pine Bluff will be coming soon, thanks to the city's street department.
The street department has proposed a program that will make sending and responding to work orders easier for both residents and workers.
The program is called "SeeClickFix" and it will be going to the city council for a vote.
If approved, street department leaders said that people who live in Pine Bluff can easily use their cell phones to report street-related problems.
Martavious Proctor, a 21-year-old Pine Bluff native, said that he uses his phone for just about everything.
"We're pushing away from doing everything by pen and paper, and we are turning it into technology," Proctor said.
Out of all the things he uses his phone for, he said he's never used it to report common issues happening around the city.
"Something I see every day [are] potholes," Proctor described.
He said he has called and filed a report with the street department in the past.
"They were in [a] backlog for there being limited employees. I was first looking at, you know, maybe two, three weeks," Proctor said.
A few weeks is certainly a considerable amount of time, but he said that fortunately in his case, it only took street department workers about two days to fix the issue.
Traffic signal superintendent John Brown said the new program will solidify accountability among the department's workers.
"Everybody comes up to me when I'm out in town and say, 'I don't think street department does anything," Brown said. "Our current system of managing calls is just pen and paper, and we got to thinking 'what if we get some kind of electronic computer program to keep better track of everything'."
Brown added that the app will be quite simple to use.
All residents will need to do is snap a picture of any street-related issue.
"You'll be able to report potholes, traffic signal problems, signage [and] drainage issues," Brown said.
After you report an issue, an employee will go and fix it.
As an added feature of this application, people will be able to see when the job has been completed.
"A lot of younger people nowadays are always on their phones and it makes it easier for them to see a problem and report it," Brown said.
Proctor said this latest advancement is improving the city one step at a time.
"In order to progress the city of Pine Bluff, we're going to have to move forward and one of those key aspects is moving forward with technology," Proctor explained.
Street department leaders said that the first year of the proposed program will cost the city a little more than $17,000, after which the price will go up to $24,000 every year following.