Niles Village Hall. (Journal photo)

Niles officials announced a new app for village services which can be downloaded through Apple or Google Play to a smartphone, at their Aug. 22 village board meeting.

The app allows users to download photos to show the village problems, allows users to drop a virtual pin on a map to show the precise location of an issue, and allows users to watch their complaints for when they are acknowledged and closed.

Users of the website can see requests that were recently made, with a pin on a map in green when requests remain open and a pin in blue once they are resolved. Those requests sometimes show what specific village employee has been assigned to look into the complaint. 

The village website contains a similar link to file complaints from the customer service page, at vniles.com, which can be accessed through a desktop or laptop computer.   

The SeeClickFix system saw a soft rollout with a test group of residents a few weeks before the village board meeting. As of Thursday, Aug. 31, the system counted 191 issues fixed. 

Complaints on the app include many referencing dead, or infested trees, but also complaints ranging from graffiti to issues with pavement such as potholes to complaints about dumpsters attracting animals.