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WESTBOROUGH, Mass. — Reporting potholes in Westborough is soon to get smarter, as a Commonwealth Connect app will bring the service to mobile devices.
Westborough is one of 35 communities selected to "piggy back" on the Boston-originated program at no charge for three years, starting in March.
"It's something that we were looking at doing anyway," said Town Manager Jim Malloy, who attended a conference with other town representatives Monday to discuss the program.
The app, which will be available on both iPhone and Android, will allow residents to report any town-related concern, including trash pickup, potholes, street light outages and graffiti.
The app, which will utilize a GPS feature and be tailored to each town, will allow users to take pictures of the area in question and send a work-order request to the DPW.
Notifications will be sent to the user after submitting, and follow-up notifications will be sent when the work order is under way and completed. Users can also use a map feature to see if a work order has already been submitted for a certain area and check on the status.
"Residents can see that we're actually responding to them," Malloy said.
After the three free years are up, the program will cost $4,900 per year to continue. Malloy said determination will be based on the success of the program and how many people are using it.
"It will be kind of a no-brainer at that point in time if people are using it," he said.
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