St. Tammany Parish Council members unanimously passed a resolution to improve the service request system within the public works department.
“That would be nice,” Mandeville resident Matthew Dorris said.
According to Councilman David Cougle, residents are having a hard time using the current system to report issues like clogged drains or potholes.
He tells WDSU he gets tons of emails about the issue.
“One of the problems that comes up is sometimes it’s kind of like there’s not a tracking number or such, and we might get asked to check up on it,” Cougle said.
However, Michael Vinsanau, a spokesperson for the parish, tells WDSU a new system is already in the works.
“We’ve been working on it for months; we don’t want to launch it and there be issues, and then we need to pull back and go back to the other system,” Vinsanau said.
He explained that the current system residents submit a form, but it’s not set up in a way where residents receive a confirmation email that the work order is received. He said the new system is set up much differently.
“So, it’s a map, you can zoom in and there’s going to be a pinpoint. You click on it, it’ll populate and it’ll say pothole drainage issue, tree in the road, and then it’ll say where it’s at, when it was reported and what Public Works is doing about it,” Vinsanau said. “And hopefully a timeline of when the work will be done.”
For Dorris, this is news he’s been waiting for. He tells WDSU he’s been dealing with flooding in his backyard from a clogged drain along Highway 22.
He said for a while he was not sure if parish leaders were aware.
“That ditch used to be filled up with trash for about six months. They just cleaned it up finally about a month ago,” Dorris said. “But it was full of trash for six months, and you can’t ever get in touch with somebody to come out and clean it.”
Vinsanau tells WDSU the parish is hoping to launch the new system in a few weeks.
READ MORE:St. Tammany Parish to soon launch a new public works service request system
