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Wednesday, September 7, 2005

3,435 Calls to 311 Offer Help

By Jim Ludwick
Journal Staff Writer
    The city's 311 system, launched eight weeks ago, handled more than 3,000 calls Monday, largely from residents seeking to help hurricane victims.
    The 3,435 phone calls compared with 1,379 the previous Monday, before Katrina victims were sent to Albuquerque's Convention Center.
    As of early Tuesday, the 311 staff had registered 1,050 homes willing to accept evacuees, said Michael Padilla, general manager of 311. It had signed up 22 companies willing to offer jobs. It helped thousands of residents wanting to know where to volunteer or make donations.
    "Who would have thought we would use 311 this way? It's a beautiful thing," Padilla said.
    "It has been tremendously successful," said Mayor Martin Chávez.
    The system was launched to handle nonemergency calls to city government. Normally, calls deal with topics ranging from entertainment and event schedules to reports of graffiti, weeds or unsafe drivers.
    Diana Lueras, who helps field 311 calls, said the work in the past few days has been "extremely exciting. People are opening up their households. . .. They are opening up their hearts."
    But there has been some confusion about where to find The Salvation Army.
    Barbara Madaras called 311 Monday for advice about donating clothing, and she was told about a warehouse at 6821 Academy Parkway West.
    Madaras said she called several times and was told to look on Academy. Ultimately, she says, Academy Parkway was mentioned, but she still didn't know where to go until she was told it was near Jefferson and Osuna.
    Salvation Army spokesman Morgan Patterson said it's a common mistake. "I don't think it's any fault of the 311 system."
    Padilla said he hadn't heard about any problems, but insisted the full address was given to callers. It's read from an information sheet used at the center, he said.
    "We try to be as diligent as possible," Padilla said. "We gave the exact street address that was provided by The Salvation Army. ... We give the information that we have."