Citizens Connect May Bring Needham DPW Closer

Roger MacDonald, Director of Information Technology explained that the program started in Boston a couple of years ago, when the city partnered with See Click Fix. 

"The State liked it so much, they wanted to offer to other municipalities in the state. It has expanded out to 46 communities," said MacDonald.

The Needham Department of Public Works (DPW) is currently running a pilot program with the application, pulling its 8 most-frequently reported issues into the See Click Fix queue from the mobile application Commonwealth Connect.

Supervisor of Administration for the DPW, Carys Lustig explained that the current system is a Microsoft Access database populated after a DPW employee or caller reports the issue, which is then turned into a work order. 

Thus far, officials say the app is much easier to make reports. 

The application uses a mobile phone's location settings to determine which of the Commonwealth Connect towns it is currently in, and will send reports to the correct queues accordingly. It will signify this by changing the background screen to the seal or logo of the appropriate municipality, MacDonald noted.

Needham is listed among the towns "Coming Soon" to the Commonwealth Connect app on the City of Boston information page. Including Boston and Newton, there are 24 communities listed as "online now."

David Davison, Assistant Town Manager and Finance Director said this is "one of many IT projects coming soon. The website is heading for e-commerce, instead of saying 'visit our site, then drive down to town hall.'"

The Commonwealth Connect is currently available for Android on the Google Play App Store, and for iPhone on the iTunes App Store.