City unveils mobile app

 Now you can pay your Kyle utility bill or renew a library book using a mobile phone app. And, if you have a lot of time to kill and absolutely nothing else in your life to do, you will now be able to watch your city council in action via your mobile phone.

At least that’s what the city is promising today with its unveiling of its own phone application. It's not perfect, yet (see comments below), but it is a start.

“Our community is becoming more and more mobile and dependent on their smart phones for information and connectivity,” Chief of Staff Jerry Hendrix said in a prepared statement. “Our City of Kyle app for smart phones puts all things Kyle in the palm of your hand.” 

You can download the City of Kyle mobile app from the Apple Store here and the from Google Play here.

Here are some of the features the city is promising with the app:

• Pay city utility bills, tickets, court fines “and for city permits and inspections.” (For what it’s worth, when I tried to access the area for permits and inspections all that came up was a blank page.) 
• The latest COVID-19 statistics for Hays County and Kyle as well as updated information regarding state and county orders, city operations and COVID-19 resources. 
• Find the latest city news and updates. 
• Keep track of upcoming elections, important deadlines as well as propositions and seats that will be on the ballot.   
• A city meetings and events calendar (that’s kind of tricky. If you just access the calendar, you will not get a listing for next Tuesday’s city council meeting. You must go to the separate meetings section to find that, which, to me, is not all that user-friendly.) 
• Contact information for city departments and leaders. 
• Access the Kyle Public Library’s catalog, hold and renew books and borrow e-books. 
• Watch the City of Kyle channel 10 live stream. 
• Information on city parks, trails and facilities. 
• Current City job postings.
• The city’s $3.14 Uber rideshare program.