Aurora customer service center dedication today
For residents on Aurora's far east side, doing city business has become a whole lot easier.
The city's Customer Service Center opened in late summer, allowing people to pay their water bill, buy garbage stickers and pick up recycling bins.
They also can drop off bills in a drop box.
The new $6 million facility, at Gregory Street and McCoy Drive, also houses Fire Station No. 8.
City leaders, including the mayor and fire chief, will be on hand to dedicate the 19,000-square-foot building at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2 p.m. today.
The facility will be open for public tours from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday. Families can receive giveaways and fire prevention tips and participate in children's activities. Sparky the Fire Dog will make an appearance.
The new building replaces an aging fire station, which had severe mold and maintenance issues. It also gives the city's customer call center -- which previously operated out of a store front -- a permanent home.
The call center will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. It handles all non-emergency issues from sewer and street concerns to special events.
The idea for the center, a first in the suburban Chicago area, came after residents complained about the service they got after calling city hall.
"Calls were getting lost or bounced around," said Mayor Tom Weisner, who was then the head of community service. "It wasn't very customer-friendly."
He and residents came up with the idea for a centralized call center, with one number: (630) 264-INFO. It would track calls from inception to resolution, sending reminders to supervisors if a call wasn't acted on.
Operators were trained to track down all city-related requests or to directly connect a person with someone from the city who could help, Weisner said.
The center opened in May 2003, handling an average of 35 calls a day. Now they handle about 300 a day. Citizens can submit requests anytime on the Web.
The building also includes a large technology room with projection equipment and computer and Internet access. The room will be available for community use in the future, leaders say.