A new city app in White House has been released to help deliver urgent messages, make it easy for people to ask questions, request help and even pay their bills.
When you visit the quiet town of White House you may not recognize the current boom.
“I’ve been up here a long time, I like White House,” said resident and business owner Artie Trenholme.
Trenholme and other locals watched their city grow by 20 percent over the past 5 years.
“When you see things go up on every corner you feel like you’re losing your small town where you had one caution light and two little restaurants,” said White House Records Clerk Amanda Rambo, “but it's a way to keep closely connected to your city.”
With the strategy Rambo’s talking about, smartphones are key. Residents say they use them all the time already.
“Constantly,” agreed Trenholme.
A new city app will help do many things ranging from asking questions to paying their bills, and residents should be answered right away.
“Say there was a pothole you think needed to be filled you would just hit ‘pothole,’” said City Reporter Kerry Harville, showing off the app.
Any requests go right to the higher-ups in the department that makes the most sense. This example would be Public Works.
“You would just put pothole,” Harville said, typing the request, “you could set as public or private and press submit!”
Residents can also upload a picture. The app will map their exact location so city officials know where to respond.
And while some say they'll still pay their bills the old fashioned way, even old-timers can see the upsides.
“I saw where you can do a burn notice, I’d probably use it for that,” Trenholme said.
The city will still take phone calls and in-person visits. But they expect to see a higher number of requests now from people who don’t find the first two options convenient.
“Just whenever you can, communicate with the city and the next day you'll have a response from us,” Rambo explained, “either you want to hear or don't want to hear but it’ll be a response nonetheless!”
This small is taking big city strides. That way it’s ready for the future.
“That's basically the bottom line, we want them to be happy in the community they’re in,” Harville said.
The app is available for Apple or Android devices. Just search for “City of White House, TN.”
City staff worked on building the app over the past 5 months. It cost the city $5,000 to develop.
