The Town of Fishers hosted a press conference today where Town Manager Gary Huff went over the results of the National Citizens Survey conducted last fall. Surveys were sent to 1,200 random Fishers residents in the 46038 and 46037 zip codes asking them their opinion on everything from quality of life to homelessness.
From the 425 respondents (37% of those that were deliverable), it seems that Fishers residents are quite happy with the town overall. Overall, 97% of respondents were rated the “Quality of Life in Fishers” as “excellent” or “good”. In most categories, residents rated Fishers “excellent” or “good” across the board. The only areas of concern amongst the respondents were snow removal, park safety after dark, and traffic congestion.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/h6UR0XHhd3k" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
“We expected to get lower scores on the traffic problems,” said Huff. “We are certainly in a high-growth area and there’s not much we can do about it,” he added.
Police Chief Kehl was on hand and explained the public’s fear after dark. “We did increase patrols, but my fear is that there is a sense of fear after dark that crime is coming from Marion County,” said Chief Kehl. (see video below)
Planning and zoning concerns were also rated lower than the other scores, again attributed to the rapid growth Fishers has undergone in recent years. “This is a national problem, people think that growth is too fast and job growth is too slow,” Huff explained. (listen to audio)
Not mentioned in the survey were questions about the annexation of Geist Reservoir, rated by Scott Faultless, Fishers Town Council President, as his second-highest priority behind the traffic problems this year in his “Fishers Weekly” interview last week. “At the time, we were looking at particular policy questions and we were more interested in looking to the future,” Huff said. “The annexations were already underway and these were questions were looking to the future.” (listen to audio) “We look to do these every three years to benchmark how we are doing,” Huff explained.
The $8,000 spent on this national survey will be put to some good use: By the Town Administration to help them understand where they need to focus their efforts in the future and by the elected officials of Fishers in their May primaries which are coincidentally on a three-year cycle as well. Bumper stickers with “97% Happiness in Fishers” won’t look bad on those town vehicles. Based on the 425 respondents, it looks as though they won’t have any problems in getting re-elected.
Here are links to the reports online: 2006 National Citizen Survey Summary Report
2006 National Citizen Survey Results
2006 National Citizen Survey Demographic Results
2006 National Citizen Survey Report of Norms
