GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — Greensboro’s mayor is hoping to empower the city’s employees with an easier way to report when things aren’t right.
The city has thousands of employees with eyes and ears on every street, and Mayor Nancy Vaughan believes giving them a simple way to call in and leave a message to report a street sign down, a mattress in the median or even a new homeless camp will help the city react quicker.
Vaughan says it’s about more than appearances. With the help of employees, people who need help can get access to resources faster.
“In front of Denny’s, which is in front of Krispy Kreme at the corner of Holden, there was a camp that was set up,” Vaughan said in Wednesday night’s city council meeting.
Vaughan said she was driving on West Gate City Boulevard when she spotted a new homeless camp near a bus stop earlier this week.
“Lots of belongings. It was right on the property of a restaurant,” she said.
We checked Thursday and found nearby mattresses and evidence of a camp that was soaked due to the rain.
Her proposal is to empower city employees to speak up when they see something like the new homeless camp.
“We have thousands of city employees that are out on the streets every day, and it was just to make them aware, to empower them and to encourage them that when they see things that are out of the ordinary, to let us know,” she said.
In Wednesday night’s city council meeting, she asked the city manager to look into creating a phone number just for city employees to relay tips about all kinds of safety issues.
“I often see downed speed limit signs, pieces of cars left over from car accidents that maybe the tow truck didn’t take. All sorts of things that we need to do to clean up our city,” Vaughan said.
She says a specialized phone number to report issues would allow city employees to quickly phone in a report then go on about their duties.
Anyone in Greensboro can report things like graffiti, potholes or trash via the app called GSO Collects or visit the city of Greensboro website.
