Town hopes to close out survey by middle of next week

Town officials were encouraged early this week with the initial responses to its community survey, conducted by the University of South Florida's Florida Institute of Government.

As of Monday, more than 250 completed surveys had been received, closing in on the minimum number of about 300-500 to consider the data it gleans valid. Carolyn Brown, the town's support services director, said results of the townwide survey are expected in report form by April. She's encouraging residents to check their mailboxes for the postcards needed to begin the online questionnaire and aim to complete the 39 questions by Feb. 10.

The Longboat Observer sat down with Brown to talk about the survey:

How many mailers were sent? 

We sent about 8,000 postcards. 

Who is getting a survey?

Survey cards were mailed to every residential address. The advantage of that is that you get current resident information from tenants, homeowners, everybody.

What sorts of questions is the town asking?
We're looking for people's responses to the services that are provided within the town and we want to know their opinions on quality of service issues. Services provided by the various departments or various other things like garbage collection and recycling and those types of things.

Will the survey be repeated in years to come?

Most of the questions will be standard from year to year to year. So, yes. Then there's a certain portion of them that will be more focused on maybe those things that are pertinent for that year or during the year. For this year, among other topics, there are questions about the arts and cultural center and the town green and what people think about that.

What about people who might be worried about confidentiality?

They're totally anonymous because a third party is handling all of that. We don't know. 

What would you tell people who haven't filled out their survey yet?

We just want to encourage people to do it and not wait until the last day.