Members of the Saugerties Town Council have been discussing signing up for TextMyGov, a smartphone application that simplifies how citizens communicate with government. The main issue the council grappled with – the cost of the service – appears to have been resolved by the town’s interest in signing up.
At the regular Town Council meeting on Monday, August 19, Mayor Bill Murphy said the Town of Saugerties has signed up for the service and the village can try the service out through the town’s account.
The city passed it on Wednesday (Aug. 14) and they’re covering it for a year, including us,” Murphy said. “So the city is basically giving us TextMyGov for a year so we can see if we want to stick with it. If we come back after a year and find it’s not working for us, it’s not going to affect the city, but we shouldn’t get rid of it.” On the other hand, “if after a year we feel like it’s working for us, we’ll renew it.”
When the town and village were considering separate plans, the cost would have been $18,000 a year and that would have been just 110,000 text transmissions, Mike Campbell said. “Together, it’s only $12,000 a year and transmissions up to 500,000. So that was pretty interesting.”
“The first year, villagers can sign up for the program and have their own accounts for free for a year. If it works at the end of the year, we’ll know,” Murphy said. If the village decides to stick with the plan after the year, the village and town would negotiate how to split the costs.
On the website https://textmygov.com/the company lists the many types of information citizens can receive and submit from their local government. Government payments, emergencies, procedures, questions for board members or supervisors, questions for specific departments such as public works, parks or water, reporting emergencies and more. At a previous meeting, Treasurer Paula Kerbert said she and Town Clerk Peggy Melville spend a lot of time answering questions from citizens. A system that answers questions or routes them to the right departments would take that burden off them. TextMyGov would relieve office staff of the need to answer inquiries and give them more time to focus on their jobs, she said.
The system would immediately notify users of problems such as flooded streets or fallen trees. Citizens could inform the municipality about such events or the municipality could send messages to users, the mayor explained.
