City, officials gather data

Officials in Oberlin have a new tool to help ensure they are giving the residents what they need.

This tool is in the form of a 108-page binder holding the results of a recent phone poll, online survey, focus groups and individual interviews completed by the Impact Group, a public relations firm hired by the city to increase communication between the administration and the community.

The City Council gathered before their regular meeting June 5 to watch a presentation of the results of that survey and to discuss what to do next with the information.

Don Polyak, a principal with the firm, were on hand to walk the council through the initial findings of the data collection.

“This first phase was a research component to help gauge satisfaction levels, awareness, priority within the community mainly focused on the service areas within the city,” Polyak explained to the council.

Polyak said the goal of this first phase was to give the council a baseline of people’s satisfaction and desires to measure the reaction to any measures the council takes.

The key question asked of the participants that relates directly to the baseline satisfaction of the community was, “How

do you rate the current quality of life in Oberlin?”

According to the data, 49 percent of those who took part in the study answered that the quality of life is good, while only one percent said it was very poor. Thirty two percent said it was very good, 16 percent said it was just ok and one percent replied that the quality of life was poor.

Polyak said when he examines the numbers, he tend to lump good and very good responses together.

“Here you have, clearly, an 81 percent on the favorable side of things,” he said.

In a more open-ended question, respondents were asked to explain what they like most about the city.

According to the data, 12.6 percent of participants said they liked the small town atmosphere that the city provides. The niceness of the residents came in second with 4.5 percent of respondents and a sense of community was the answer 4.2 percent of the time.

In a phone interview

“The whole survey is to service the community in a more expedient and efficient way; find out what their wants are and to put them there so we can make sure our tax dollars are working in the best fashion for (the residents).”

— Council President Ronnie Rimbert

with The Morning Journal, Council President Ronnie Rimbert said the biggest revelation from the lengthy presentation was the public’s interest in services.

“I think that everyone has the same concern and it’s services; specifically police and fire,” he said.

The data backs Rimbert’s assertion. According to the results 88 percent of respondents felt the Oberlin Police Department was very to somewhat important to them, while only six percent were neutral and five percent thought they weren’t important.

Likewise, 96 percent of participants believes the city’s fire services are somewhat to very important to them. Two percent believed they were neutral and only one percent did not believe the department was important.

In addition, 68 percent of respondents viewed the city’s police services positively, 19 percent are neutral and only seven percent rated them poor or very poor. The fire services garnered a 77 percent favorable rating, 10 percent neutral and only two percent poor or very poor.

Likewise, 95 percent of respondents believed street maintenance was important, but according to the data only 47 percent believed the current road maintenance program was good or very good.

Rimbert also highlighted the fact many residents who are more keyed into the larger picture were interested in the city’s environmental sustainability programs.

According to the data, 75 percent of respondents believe the programs are important and 55 percent view the current programs positively.

In a similar vein, when asked about the city’s plan to become a climate positive community by 2050, 70 percent of respondents said the goal was important while only 14 percent believe it is not.

According to Rimbert, there may be three or four more meetings to allow the Impact Group and City Council to put all of the information together.

“Once the playbook is assembled, then, hopefully, it’s going to give us a better version of the best way to disseminate this information to the community,” he said.

Rimbert said at this early juncture the information has not had an effect on the way the council is proceeding, but it may down the road.

“The whole survey is to service the community in a more expedient and efficient way; find out what their wants are and to put them there so we can make sure our tax dollars are working in the best fashion for (the residents),” he said.