September 3, 2020

City giving citizens a new, quick way to find an answer, report a problem

By Darren Dunn

(Seguin) -- There’s a new way for you to easily access information or to report problems in the city of Seguin. The city this week is launching its TextMyGov text messaging service.

Seguin Public Information Officer Jennifer Sourdellia says that this is a tool that is easily accessible to anyone who has the ability to send a text message. Sourdellia says texting is a major way that people communicate today, and

TextMyGov allows the city to expand its ability to reach those people.

“At least 97 percent of smart phone owners text regularly according to Pew Research (Center). According to a Nielson Study, 56 percent of people surveyed would rather text message a business rather than call customer service. Using TextMyGov is a quick, easy and in many cases eliminates the need to call the city and there’s no app to download,” said Sourdellia.

Sourdellia says access to the service is as easy as texting a dedicated phone number, and then responding to the questions that are sent back to you. She says it can answer all sorts of questions about the city of Seguin.

“So, here’s how it works. Simply text ‘hi’ to 830-800-8002. You will then receive an instant response for various prompts and steps that guide you in locating the information that you are looking for. TextMyGov scans the city’s website for the key words and instantly replies back with an answer including links for detailed information. For unrecognized words that someone might text in, citizens will be provided an email address

and phone number to contact our citizen relations coordinator,” said Sourdellia.

It’s not just a resource for having your questions answered. Sourdellia says the service will also allow you to report problems to the city.

“Citizens can text the word ‘report’ to report issues such as pot holes, a missed garbage collection, a stray animal or weedy lots, etc. They can even upload and text a photo along with the description. City staff will be notified by an email generated by TextMyGov and issues reported will be entered into a workplace system, the majority of time, by our citizens relations coordinator. In some cases for example, animal services will be notified by an email about an animal issue or the administrative

technician and public works will be notified about your email about reports of pot holes or other public works related issues. The administrative technician will then dispatch crews to resolve the issues reported. The same is similar for power outages or water utility issues. A utilities dispatcher will be notified,” said Sourdellia.

Again, it is easy to get started. Just send a text to 830-800-8002 and follow the prompts. Sourdellia says as part of this launch, the city will also be offering another new service that will allow people to sign up to receive updates from the city that are sent via text message. This is an opt-in service, which is similar to a program also used by the Seguin ISD to keep the community informed about important topics and events.

City manager shares latest COVID-19 update

By Darren Dunn

(Seguin) -- The latest data shows that COVID-19 numbers continue to improve in Seguin and Guadalupe County. Seguin City Manager Steve Parker has been providing regular COVID-19 updates during each Seguin City Council meeting. Parker, on Tuesday, again shared the latest numbers released by officials from the state, the county and Guadalupe Regional Medical Center. Parker says that there are still new cases being reported, but that number has slowed a bit and most of those patients continue to recover. “We have at this time 2,275 total reported cases in Guadalupe County – 1994 of those have recovered with 281 confirmed active cases and that shows that Guadalupe Regional had 34 deaths and they only have one hospitalized at this time. The state website shows 72 deaths across the state but we haven’t gotten a determination of which cities those were in Guadalupe County but 34 have been from the hospital,” said Parker. Parker says the local COVID-19 hospitalization and death rates have also come down in recent weeks. Parker says of the deaths that have been reported so far, a number of them have occurred in the city of Seguin, and he says that’s something that they have been watching closely. “We do have 22 of the 42 deaths in Guadalupe County. When we talked to the hospital and emergency management and Guadalupe County, the only thing we can think of is maybe there is more multi-generational people, houses here in Seguin so you have families that are living together, getting more exposed and so forth so we have had a larger case of deaths in Seguin as opposed to somewhere else,” said Parker. The mitigation efforts appear to be working, especially when the numbers are compared to the high number of deaths and hospitalizations that were seen in Guadalupe County earlier this summer. Residents are encouraged to continue to fight against the spread of the virus by wearing a mask, practicing social distancing and washing their hands often.

Seguin ISD parents getting a few pre-back to school reminders

By Cindy Aguirre-Herrera

(Seguin) -- This week is the week for Meet the Teacher and school schedules. Of course, this year is plenty different as each campus is expected to notify families about its own particular events. Notification is for students learning face to face or from home.

Sean Hoffmann, the chief communications officer for the Seguin ISD, says the district is relying on social media, the local media and of course the telephone to make contact with their families about and for a large number of campuses, today’s Meet the Teacher. He says with students still registering, schools are working around the clock to get everything in order and ready for next week’s first day of school.

“We will be having Meet the Teacher this week. However, it is going to look different than as it has in years past. We will be having face to face Meet the Teacher events for our pre-k, kinder, first grade and sixth grade students. We want our younger students to have that opportunity if their parents so desire to have them come in and meet their teacher as well as our students who are transitioning into middle school at the sixth-grade level. We are not offering those face to face meet the teacher events for our other grades simply because we want to minimize the number of visitors in our schools. There will be virtual opportunity so campuses should be contacting parents to let parents and students know when those virtual or online Meet the Teacher opportunities are for this week,” said Hoffmann.

Hoffmann says school campuses will also be working this week to make sure that electronic devices also make it into the hands of local children.

“Same goes for the device distribution – during our online registration process, parents were able to let us know whether or not they needed a device for their student at home and so again, the campuses are contacting those parents who have made that indication on our online registration process,” said Hoffmann.

Hoffmann says class schedules are also now available for secondary level students through the Seguin ISD Parent Portal.

Seguin ISD officials are also taking the time this week to share a couple of things with their parents. Hoffmann says the first involves student transportation.

“One thing that is new this school year in regard to transportation, we are encouraging our parents, if possible, to drive their children to school. This is something that we don’t normally encourage. Normally, we want to encourage as many students as possible to ride a bus to school. However, due to COVID-19, due to social distancing, again, this year, we are encouraging parents that if they have the ability to drop their children off at school or carpool with other family members to do that – that is preferable to the bus. We will be offering bus transportation. It’s possible that we are going to try to social distance as much as possible, however, we do know that the opportunity is there for our students to be in close proximity while on the bus,” said Hoffmann.

Hoffmann says he also wants parents to know that visits to the campus will not be the same. This especially goes for the first few days of school when it is most busy. He says in order to protect students and staff, the district has to do its part to limit access into the campuses.

“Another item that we want our parents to know this year is that we will be extremely limiting the number of visitors onto a campus, so we are asking our parents to not come to school unless absolutely necessary. We were not looking to have folks who are not staff in the school walking the hallways --again, coming on campus to deliver or join students for lunches. It’s unfortunate that we have to do this but again, we are looking at the safety of our staff and our students trying to mitigate COVID-19 exposure as much as possible. We are hoping that everybody is patient and understanding and realize that we all play a part in the health and safety of our students and staff while they are at school,” said Hoffmann.