Findings of a community survey were revealed at a City Council work session Monday, showing residents’ views on a variety of aspects of city services and priorities.
WGIL will cover more of the results in detail in the coming days, but the top priority of residents was clear; improve city streets.
Esther Thompson with ETC, the firm that did the survey, says that 71 percent rated the quality of city streets as what they wanted the city’s top priority to be.
Thompson considered that an alarming level compared with other communities they work with.
Of course, how residents feel about a community center was of great interest.
62 percent of residents think building or renovating a building for a community center should be a priority. Also, 33 percent have been following the issue closely.
Then when residents were asked about what kinds of programs they would like to see at a community center a senior center or a teen center were the top two. The bottom of that list was ag classes, a fitness center, or a gymnasium.
Esther Thompson with the ETC, the firm that performed the survey, was asked how the council should look at prioritizing funds for a community center versus fixing roads.
Thompson said ultimately the results indicate the biggest resident wish is for better roads, and roads ultimately affect a wider swath of the population.
There were 56 different categories of city services and programs that residents were asked about in a 7-page survey.
The results were controlled for the city’s real breakdown of race, age, gender, and income. Not only that but there’s a cross section of opinions to represent residents of different community neighborhoods.
For example, 79 percent of Galesburg is white so 79 percent of the sample is white. ETC aimed to have 400 surveys completed and got 433 back, giving them a margin of error plus or minus 4.7.
