By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph residents want the city to focus on the basics.
At least, that’s according to the latest survey of Buchanan County residents conducted for the St. Joseph Community Alliance.
“I always look at survey results such as these as an opportunity,” Community Alliance Director Tama Wagner tells St. Joseph Post. “Clearly, there are places I wish we were doing better, but what the survey does, it gives us a roadmap for how to improve and what to improve.”
The survey of more than 700 Buchanan County residents indicates they want the city to focus on maintenance of streets as well as providing support for fire and police. Those responding also indicate support to address homelessness and efforts to revitalize older neighborhoods.
Survey respondents cited three main reasons for living in St. Joseph: safety and security, the cost of living, and living near family and friends. The most important issues facing St. Joseph, according to survey respondents, are public safety, jobs, and education.
Wagner says the survey results will be used by the Imagine St. Joseph 2040 Plan to concentrate on plans for the future.
“We do look at this survey in specifics to St. Joseph and it gives us a good idea what we need to work on in the community itself, because they’re issues specific to us,” Wagner says.
Wagner says, overall, the survey results do not come as a surprise.
“There’s a reason it’s called the Imagine St. Joseph 2040 Plan. It’s a long-range plan,” Wagner says. “These issues didn’t occur overnight. The solutions won’t occur overnight. But, we have good feedback from the community. We have the right people around the table to address these issues and we have a plan to move forward.”
The survey was conducted by mail and online, sent to randomly selected households in both St. Joseph and Buchanan County with a confidence level of 95%, according to St. Joseph Community Alliance.