First Selectman Jeb Walker was positively beaming this week at the tail end of the Town Council meeting. He went over the preliminary results of the survey the town asked Dr. Kurt Schlichting of Fairfield University to conduct on how satisfied citizens were with their town government. The general response? You like him, you really like him.
The main highlight was the overall satisfaction. Approximately 93 percent of those surveyed said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with living in New Canaan, and 54 percent chose the latter. Also, only 15 percent of responders said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the responsiveness of town officials. Actually, it said very satisfied with the First Selectman, Walker joked.
Schlichtings team conducted the survey in two parts. The first was a random sampling, calling 1,500 New Canaan voters and asking the chosen questions. The second was a direct mailing to every household in the voter record that was not included in the first stage. They sent the questionnaire to 6,107 homes, and 1,155 returned a form.
The respondents clear favorite among the town services was the New Canaan Public School system. Over 90 percent gave the school system excellent or good overall ratings. The biggest gripe by far was the towns roads. Forty-three percent rated the system fair or poor.
One thing that disappointed Walker was how New Canaanites get their information on local issues. The initial results say 96 percent find out through local newspapers. But 69 percent got information from friends and neighbors, which Walker called the gossip factor. He hoped the results for the town website would be higher, as only 28 percent of citizens cited that as a source. He said he put a lot of work over the past few years into updating the website, but its still not widely used as a source of information.
What do you think about the towns services? Let me know at [email protected]. Check back later in the week for results from our highly informal poll.
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