To gauge what Hagerstown residents would like to see from local government, the Hagerstown City Council will send out a community survey.
During Tuesday's work session, Mayor Emily Keller said she had met with Police Chief Paul Kifer and Capt. Tom Alexander to begin crafting a targeted survey to try to ensure participation from all parts of the city.
The proposed plan is to send out 1,200 surveys with a goal to get back at least 400 responses before opening the survey up to everyone online, Keller said.
Kifer said 1,200 was an academic starting point suggested by Alexander, who previously taught statistical analysis at Hagerstown Community College. After some feedback from council members, Kifer said that number could be increased.
The surveys would be sent out proportionately to different areas of the city. Kifer said the surveys would be numbered to keep track of what part of the city the answers came from.
He said doing a survey online would be trickier than through the mail because not everyone has access to the internet, and it would be difficult to stop those who don't live in the city from taking it.
It would be possible to link the survey to, perhaps, a resident's water/sewer account with the city to limit who has access to it, Kifer said.
Keller said she used a survey from North Carolina as an example for questions, including how long residents have lived in the city, if they work in Hagerstown, how often they patronize local businesses and restaurants, and what they believe are the city's biggest strengths and issues.
Examples will be given for some questions, along with the opportunity for respondents to fill in their own answers, she said.
Other questions included how respondents would prefer to receive updates and notifications from the city, what initiative or service they would like to see Hagerstown implement and what large-scale project, if any, they would like to have in Hagerstown, such as a multi-use baseball stadium, indoor sports complex, an amphitheater or other.
Council members suggested adding questions about the household size, education level of those in the household, the impact of COVID-19 on residents, and what kind of family-friendly or youth activities people would like to see expanded in the city.
Kifer said Alexander will look over the proposed questions from the mayor and council to rephrase if necessary to avoid any bias.
The body will be able to look over the survey before it is sent out, he said.
The mayor and council also decided to wait until after the survey results had been returned before meeting about the group's strategic goal-setting for the next four years so they could include the public's input.
November 26, 2020 at 01:04AM
https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/local/hagerstown-to-send-out-community-survey/article_ebca0893-4ecd-5ee3-ae1e-cf3a2f974030.html
Hagerstown to send out community survey - Herald-Mail Media
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