EVANSTON, ILLINOIS - The City of Evanston’s 311 Center today marked five years of service to the Evanston community.

Launched on March 1, 2011 (3-1-11), Evanston 311 is the key to City information and services for residents and businesses. During its five years of operation, Evanston 311 staff has handled:

• 678,101 phone calls
• 132,270 service requests
• 9,916 live online chats (starting July 2012)
• 1,459 text messages (starting July 2014)

Annual service requests have more than doubled since the service began, from 16,840 in 2011 to 35,246 in 2015. Top requests include scheduling special trash pick-ups and building permit requests.

"Congratulations and thank you to the entire Evanston 311 team for their tremendous work over the last five years, and thank you to all City staff for their good work responding to 311 service requests," said City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz. "Evanston 311 has been a game changer for the City of Evanston and its residents, improving both internal and external City services, increasing efficiency and accountability, and ensuring that City services and information are convenient and accessible to all residents."

Evanston 311 maintains a 10-person staff, including four original staff members and two bilingual (English/Spanish) staff. Services and offerings have continued to expand and improve each year since the Center's launch. In addition to dialing 3-1-1, Evanston community members may now contact 311 by texting 847-448-4311, visiting cityofevanston.org/311, downloading the “Evanston 311” mobile app on the App Store or Google Play, or connecting with Evanston 311 on Twitter and Facebook. Evanston 311 staff also engage with residents and visitors in-person at community events throughout the year.

Photos from today's event celebrating five years of Evanston 311 can be found on the City's Picasa account.

For more information, please call/text 847-448-4311. For convenience, residents may simply dial 3-1-1 in Evanston.