The Town of Black Diamond wants residents’ input to help shape the future of the community.
A citizen satisfaction survey has been sent to each household in town asking opinions on topics ranging from quality of life to snow removal.
The responses will help the Town determine what to set its sights on for future initiatives.
“If they are demanding a certain level of service we know that’s important and we need to put money towards those services,” said Town chief administrative officer Joanne Irwin.
The Town distributes citizen surveys once every three or four years to help set future plans and goals to ensure the community is a desirable place to live.
“We are looking for input from the citizens on what’s important to them, what’s not and where they think the town is at,” said Irwin.
For instance, it asks citizens to rate their quality of life, if they feel council is accessible and what services and infrastructure they consider important.
“If snow clearing, for example, is extremely important to the majority of our citizens we are going to pay attention to that,” she said. “If 80 per cent of citizens said they don’t care about snow clearing we could take it out of the budget and use those dollars somewhere else.”
The survey asks residents to rate water quality and supply, recreation, growth, regional partnerships, affordability, volunteer recruitment and business attraction, said Irwin.
It also addresses successful communication, whether it be social media, email or Internet, she said.
“It’s critical information for council to focus its sights on,” she said. “It gives council a good set of information to look at. It assist them in the budgetary process.”
In past years, approximately 10 per cent of Black Diamond households took the surveys, said Irwin.
“It sounds minimal, but for a survey it’s historically not that bad,” she said.
Irwin said the more people who complete the survey the more weight there is to the results.
“If 50 people respond that’s not really indicating the entire population’s opinions,” she said. “We would really like to have a solid response from the citizens.”
Irwin said administration aims to give council as much information as possible so when it’s time to make a decision regarding infrastructure, services and other issues the decision is based on accurate information.
“We are hopeful our citizens will take the time to fill them out,” she said, adding it takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete. “If you don’t ask you’re never going to know what the citizens might want to say. This is one way to reach out to them.”
Irwin said the surveys go directly to Banister Research and Consulting, the company the Town hired to compile the results.
“We don’t see anything,” he said. “This is what we’re paying this company to do is to give us the data in such a way that we are able to use the information for future planning.”
Verna Staples, Black Diamond legislative services manger, said once the results are tabulated administration will compile a report for council that may or may not include recommendations.
“We do tend to take these forward and use the results when we’re looking at our strategic plan and goals,” she said. “Some of them may be immediate budget concerns.”
Staples expects to receive the report before the end of this year. Residents have until Nov. 13 to complete the survey.
