Naperville Parks offers new '311 Parks' service to report park maintenance needs

Posted May 17, 2018 11:00 pm

Submitted by Naperville Park District

One of the largest park districts in Illinois, Naperville Park District manages 137 parks across a community that spans more than 37 square miles. Park maintenance staff and park police monitor the conditions of parks, but also rely on Naperville residents to report problems that they see in their neighborhood parks or facilities.

Park district staff began using an online reporting system, "311 Parks" in February 2018 to track park maintenance requests that were called in or sent via email. The district now is making this system available to residents via a link, 311parks.napervilleparks.org/open.php and will include a "311 Parks" tab in an updated version of the Naperville Park District App, due to be released by mid-June 2018.

"The 311 Parks system is easy to use and gives residents a quick, reliable way to inform the park district of conditions that they observe in the parks that may need attention," said Omar Sandoval, the district's information technology director.

For a number of years, park district staff had been looking for a way to track calls and requests across the district. Sandoval researched available technology and decided to customize a help ticket application for use by the park district and its residents.

"The 311 Parks application gives people the opportunity to contact the Park District immediately from their mobile phones when they are out walking or playing in a park," Sandoval explained. "The user can select from a menu of issues and also can type in a description and location. The application asks for the user's email address so that we can respond to the request or ask for additional information."

"The new 311 Parks request system will help our park maintenance department address problems proactively and track the types, frequency and locations of reported issues over time," said Director of Parks Kevin Finnegan. "The trend data will help us plan and budget more efficiently, leading to better service for our community."

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