COMMUNITY SURVEY RESULTS
At its October meeting the West Concord Economic Development Authority decided to do a Community Survey. The sample questions came from a workshop attended by three community members in October 2004.
The EDA received one-hundred (100) responses of three-hundred-sixty (360) surveys sent out. This is considered an extremely good return. We wish to thank those who took the time to return the survey. We will try to, over the next couple months, write two or three articles on the survey results. The results have been tallied. The following analysis is based upon a simple tally procedure.
Sixty-one (61) of the one hundred (100) said that the business outlook in West Concord is not favorable. Sixty-five (65) said there was not much we could do about the decline, and seventy-six (76) said if we wait things WILL NOT turn around and new businesses WILL NOT open. The community is in essence saying that they know there are not enough people in town to support business. Therfore we must bring more people to town. Eighty-nine (89) said that they feel we need additional stores, and Seventy-eight (78) said they would be willing to pay slightly more for groceries if there was a grocery store in town. Forty-five (45) said that they could not drive out of town at $3.00 a gallon for gas and still save, while twenty-six (26) were unsure, but twenty-four (24) felt they could, at $3.00 per gallon, still drive and save. Fifty-nine (59) said that they would prefer to shop in town, but sixty (60) said they would continue to shop out of town for most items.
In rating the top five community needs "New Commercial Development" was the first choice, with "Industrial Development" being second, "Commercial Rehabilitation" being third, and "New Housing Development" being fourth.
Of the three things people liked about the community the "Fire and Ambulance Services" greatly outscored the rest of the choices. Affordable housing and Cooperation and caring were second and third choices.
Of the three things people would like to change in the community employment opportunities rated the highest, with infrastructure upgrades and property owners taking greater pride in their properties being the second and third.
In "How would you like the community to look in 10/20 years" there was strong desire to "Maintain and Support local Business", with better infrastructure and more homes coming in as second and third choice.
Fifty-seven people wrote comments which the EDA is still analyzing. These and more on the survey results will be featured in later newspaper atricles.
They had been talking about doing a survey for about three months. There was a lot of discussion on the questions to be asked. This workshop started the discussion on community development. It led to the formation of the West Concord EDA. Originally, reactivating the West Concord Development Association was discussed. It was found that with changes in the Minnesota Statutes it would be better to have an EDA instead of the Development Association.
