Beginning June 1, the City of Leeds is rolling out a new communication service for residents. The program, TextMyGov, will allow residents to text directly into the city regarding issues.

Some of the capabilities will include reporting road damage, obtaining information on business licenses or asking specific city questions, such as concerns with parks and recreation.

Once a resident texts a word such as “hello” into the system, it will send back a brief introduction to begin guiding them towards the needed information or contact.

City Administrator Brad Watson said residents will even have a capability to send in photos so that the proper city coordinator can see exactly whatever the problem is. He was tasked with being the facilitator of the program.

Watson said there are a lot of positive aspects of this new program, but the biggest one is the simplicity of it.

“The appealing thing with this product was you don’t have to download an app or anything, you text as you would to your family and friends,” said Watson.

It was originally used by Jefferson County. Leeds city leaders saw how it could be utilized to improve city council meetings because they first saw it as a way for people to sign up to speak during public comments.

“We got to look at the county was doing with it and discovered it had a lot of other uses that would be beneficial to the city,” said Watson.

He said he’s excited for the residents to have another way to interact with their government.

“We hope that it will make things better and will make it easier for people to communicate their concerns or to ask questions,” said Watson. “Pretty much the majority of the population has access to texting capabilities, and it’s just a quick, easy way to notify the city.”