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City of West Concord

A Proud Heritage, A Bright Future
 

4th Community Survey Results

COMMUNITY SURVEY RESULTS  

This is the fourth article on the results of the West Concord Community Survey completed in Noverber 2006.  If you missed the first three articles they can be found on the West Concord web site at www.westconcordmn.com, under EDA/Community Survey.

In the section that had the respondents rate from one (1) to five (5), with five being the highest, most of the statements came out to be about average (3).  The respondents felt that there is evidence of pride in the community.  However, some of the written comments had to do with the issue of community pride.  Some felt that the city should be doing more to clean-up properties in town, and somehow instill more pride in property owners. Another said "that people need to take more responsibility for their property.  There has been a lot of comments on what happened to the houses in West Concord.  Some places look terrible." It was pointed out that unkept houses hurt the neighbors and neighborhood. It reduces the property values when it is time to sell. It may also prevent a potential buyer from seriously looking at a property.

The City Council has worked on cleaning up some properties for about a year.  It is a long process.  First is the notice with a time limit to make corrections, or appeal. Then there is the citation, a possible court appearance, and a possible appeal.  If the City would prevail, then they can go into the property and do the work (if the owner doesn't make the corrections).  Then the owner can be charged for the cost of cleaning up the property and if not paid it can be put on the owner's property taxes. Someone said "just do it", but property owners have rights and appeals that are protected by law.

The City has worked to get rid of some of the junk cars in town.  However, if a car is licensed and insured, the owner can keep it on his property.  If a car is on Commercial or Industrial property it is exempt from the requirement that it be licensed and insured.

In this section the highest rating went to a "strong belief and support in education" with a 3.89 average out of a possible five(5).  When we read the comments they vary from tear down the middle school because it is falling apart, to make it a "Charter School" if the school district would close the building.

The lowest rating went to "Broad community participation in community decision making" with a 1.30 average out of a possible five (5). There were comments to replace the City Council members with younger people. We have had "younger" people on the City Council, but they seem to be more mobile and move.  There will be an opportunity to find someone to run for the City Council in 2008. We hope there will be some interest.

The City Council has an OPEN and PUBLIC meeting on the second Thursday of the month. Very seldom does anyone, other than the newspaper, attend unless they have something on the agenda. The exception is the "Truth in Taxation" meeting that is held annually.  There everyone is concerned about tax increases.

There will be an effort to write a fifth article in the near future.  We hope you are getting the information from the results of the survey that you wanted to see.

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