Lauderdale County residents can take part in making their community better as the county Road and Bridge Department rolls out a Citizen Engagement Portal.
Through the portal, residents can report issues such as damage to roads, drainage issues, signage needs and other non-emergency maintenance requests. The online portal is open to residents anytime and can be accessed from either a smartphone or computer. Once a work order is submitted, residents can track its progress through the Citizen Engagement Portal to see where it is in the process of being addressed.
Road Manager Rush Mayatt said the portal, which uses the IWorq software platform, is a way for residents to report issues directly to the Road Department to be resolved.
In years past, residents have reported drainage, road and other issues through their county supervisor or someone they know in the Road Department, Mayatt said. While that can work, it takes time to get to a point where a work order is generated and can be delayed by misplaced notes, busy schedules or forgetfulness.
“The more you can get away from those type things and people have a way of inputting that stuff, the better off we’ll be, the less work we’ll miss, the more efficient I think we’ll be and so on,” he said. “So that’s kind of the whole thought process behind the Citizen Portal.”
Mayatt said the Road and Bridge Department, for a long time, also depended on written work orders and old-fashioned paperwork to dictate day-to-day tasks, but it too has moved to the IWorq platform to streamline the department’s efforts. The platform tracks hours on equipment, materials used, labor costs and more, he said, and can be used to plan maintenance on vehicles, assess when it’s time to roll equipment over, and look up previous work done on county roads.
“It’s a very useful tool if used correctly,” he said.
As part of their submission, residents will be asked to provide their name, email, phone number, a description of the issue they’re reporting and a location/address of the problem. The more detail residents can provide, the easier it is for Road Department crews to find the source of the issue and determine what needs to be done to address it, Mayatt said. Residents can also upload photos with their submission, he said, which can be very helpful.
“It truly is a resource for the citizens to use, to be more convenient and to ultimately make us more efficient,” he said. “I hope, as time progresses, people continue to use it more and more, and I think ultimately it’ll be just that. It’ll make us better.”
Residents can access the portal at lauderdalecounty.portal.iworq.net or through the Road Department’s website or social media.