How to actually get something fixed in Inkster: every number that works

INKSTER, Mich. Most people in this city call one number when something is wrong, get routed somewhere, and give up.

Inkster actually runs separate lines for separate problems, and they are faster than the switchboard. This is the whole list, pulled from the city's own notices. Save it.

Potholes

Call 313-563-4268. That is the Department of Public Services pothole hotline.

Have ready: your full name, your phone number, and the exact location, either a street address or the nearest intersection. The city says staff will make contact within 24 to 72 hours about your report.

The precision matters. "Middlebelt has potholes" is not a work order. A cross street is.

Blight, property maintenance and ordinance violations

Call 313-741-5605, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This is the ordinance hotline, and it is the right line for a derelict house, tall grass, junk in a yard, or an illegal dump. The city says a follow-up comes within 72 business hours.

You can also email photos to blight@cityofinkster.com, which is worth doing. A dated photo is harder to close out than a phone description.

This line is not for emergencies. If something is dangerous right now, call 911.

Water bills and water quality

The city takes water complaints through an online Water Concerns form, linked from the city's news page.

Expect it to take time. The city says investigations may run up to two weeks, and can include a review of billing records, an engineering assessment, and in some cases an on-site visit.

If your bill is the problem, submit the form and keep your own copy of the reading and the bill. Written records are what survive a two-week review.

Trash, compost and bulk items

Lead service lines

If you do not know whether the pipe feeding your house is lead, that is a question worth answering rather than ignoring.

Michigan's Safe Drinking Water Act requires every water system to build and maintain an inventory of service line materials, and to notify owners and occupants served by a lead line, or by a line whose material cannot be determined, within 30 days of that determination.

Inkster has filed that inventory with the state and runs a Lead Education and Faucet Replacement Program with an application on the city's website. If you have never received a notice and have never checked, call Public Services at 313-563-9774 and ask what your line is recorded as.

Public records

Anything the city holds, you can ask for. Inkster takes Freedom of Information Act requests through a form on the clerk's website, and the City Clerk is the FOIA coordinator.

This is the tool for the documents that answer the questions a phone call will not: contracts, invoices, inspection reports, email.

One thing that makes all of this work better

Write down who you spoke to and when.

Every one of these lines has a stated response window, 24 to 72 hours for potholes, 72 business hours for ordinance complaints, two weeks for water. Those windows are only meaningful if someone is counting. A name and a date turns a complaint into a record, and a record is what you bring to a council meeting when nothing happens.

Called one of these and got nowhere? Tell us what happened through our tips page. We are tracking response times, and the gap between the stated window and the real one is a story.