‘You need help? Call us.’ Manatee County’s 311 system provides a lifeline during pandemic

The Manatee County 311 Call Center was in the works well before the coronavirus pandemic hit the area a year ago this month.

However, it wasn’t long after the official opening on March 11, 2020, that the scope of its responsibility switched from directing calls about broken sidewalks to easing fears about a virus that was not yet fully understood.

And now it is a key player in the county’s effort to vaccinate residents against the coronavirus.

The call center receives anywhere between 4,000 and 7,000 calls a day — or a phone call about every five seconds. Though no one had heard of the coronavirus or COVID-19 when the 311 call center was being developed to help county residents with everyday issues, it had at the helm the perfect person to handle a crisis.

311 Supervisor Marcia Bacon spent 32 years working in the 911 dispatch center, handling crisis after crisis and directing law enforcement under duress. Shortly after the launch of 311, the health crisis began to escalate and the system took on a role that had not been imagined by its developers.

“I enjoy helping people,” Bacon said. “I retired after 32 years in the 911 center and they called me in to help set up the 311 system. Somehow, here I am because this just fell right into place. I was like we can do this, let’s just do it. We were given the tools, opportunity and knowledge of what to tell our callers, so we thought bring on the citizens and if we can help them, we’ll help them.”

Theresa McDaniel started as a 311 Call Center operator in October 2019 when the center was still being developed.

Things changed dramatically within days of the launch.

“We came in one day and something came out on the news and all of a sudden the phones went crazy,” McDaniel said. “So we went from pretty mild calls to craziness. I think of a lot what we are doing is reassuring people. We want everyone to get vaccinated in as a timely fashion as we can.”

While the county has transitioned to an automated vaccination registration system, the center is still inundated with calls from people who want to make sure they did it right when signing up for appointments to get their shots.

“It was a bumpy road in the beginning, but we got settled and the goal is to get everybody vaccinated so people can get back to normal,” McDaniel said.

Fear and uncertainty were prevalent in the voices on the other end of the lines in the beginning. Fear and uncertainty turned to desperation as a limited number of vaccines began trickling into the system.

There seems to be a slow, but steady calming amid the pandemic now.

“I feel like in the beginning, it was all kind of a new thing,” McDaniel said. “People didn’t know what to expect. I think the fear got a little more real as time went on and then we weren’t getting vaccines. It seems like now that everybody is like, ‘OK, everything is going to happen. We’re going to get vaccinated.’

“And now we’re getting more weekly, which is fantastic,” she said. “I think the fear has leveled off.”

“We want to be a one-call resolution,” Bacon said. “From the beginning, we were thinking we are here to provide Manatee County services. If you had a damaged sidewalk, you would call 311 and we would be that help. So that was the goal, but then COVID came.”

Bacon said the center still takes those calls, amid the calls about COVID-19.

“We are here long-term,” she said. “So when you call 311, we want to handle whatever your case is with one call. Our goal here is to help, so that is our main focus. We want to help every citizen. You need help? Call us. “