South Ogden City Survey Results

I have made a few posts in the pasts about the South Ogden City Survey. 766 households responded to the survey with a rate of return of 14.5 percent. I am excited to report that the results are now available online. South Ogden has prepared a power point and an excel sheet detailing the results. They are truly worth a read. I am posting a few items of interest from the survey on the blog.

Website:

First I thought it was interesting to see the results of people's opinion with regards to the South Ogden City Website. Personally I have really enjoyed having the a city website, but the results echo my feelings with how it is run and managed.

• 38% knew we had a website.
• 62% didn't know we had a website.

• 40% thought the website was somewhat helpful
• 32% thought it was moderately helpful.

• 31% felt that the website needed to be updated or have more information.

Again, I am happy we have a website and sometimes South Ogden is very good at updating the site and other times not. Along with the occasional misspelling, I wish they would post a little more information and keep it more up to date. Maybe even have RSS feeds from the Standard and other South Ogden News.

Open Space:

One of the open space questions received a low score, but the rest received very high responses from the citizens of South Ogden.

On a scale of 1 to 7, asking if South Ogden should develop or improve certain areas, Open Space scored the highest with a 5.6. Also on the section asking citizens, for planning purposes, are there development issues you would like to comment on for consideration, open space scored the highest percentage in the following three categories:

• Intermediate (this year or next) 23%
• Coming up (3-5 years) 18%
• Long Range (5 Years out) 23%

Based on this survey, Open Space is a BIG DEAL! Well hopefully with the new addition of Sallee Orr to the council we will be able to work on this. (She has a Bachelors of Science from the University of Utah in Recreation and parks management.)

Pool/Recreation Center:

One last question I thought was interesting: Are there any facilities, services, or amenities that South Ogden is not currently offering that you would like to see offered? 36 percent of those surveyed said they wanted a swimming pool or recreation center. This question was asked in similar ways about 15 times through out the survey, in fact 3 times it was asked twice in the same question splitting the vote. Only one time did it score the highest. Citizens were also asked how much people are willing to pay in property taxes to pay for a pool and 65 percent of us said it was not important enough for an increase. I would love a place I could take my family and not have to buy a membership, but I am not a fan of increased property taxes.

Overall the survey results are very interesting; however I think some more time could be spent in organizing it a little better. Please take some time to review the results further, they are very interesting.