The results are in.
On May 27th at the regular meeting of City council, Banister Research & Consulting Inc. presented the findings of the City’s first ever Citizen Satisfaction Survey, which was conducted earlier this month. The survey results suggest that Lacombians are happy with the services the City provides.
“These are phenomenal numbers for the City of Lacombe,” said Tracy With, vice-president of Banister Research & Consulting Inc.
Although it is a city, Lacombe’s ‘small town feel’ was the top contributing factor to a high quality of life in Lacombe among those surveyed while the community’s lack of both variety and number of businesses, restaurants and shopping opportunities was the highest contributor to a lower quality of life.
A high quality of life was something that Lacombe scored exceptionally well on. Lacombe received more than a 90% satisfaction rating by those surveyed in all areas dealing with quality of life, such as overall quality of life, environment quality, being a good place to live and raise a family and cleanliness of the City.
History has always been important to Lacombe, and it’s something that citizens feel has helped shape its identity. Eighteen per cent of those surveyed said that Lacombe’s heritage and historical community came to mind when thinking of Lacombe’s community identity and 28% said that they considered Lacombe’s iconic and historical buildings and architecture to be among its most unique features.
Once again, Lacombe’s ‘small town feel’, was also said to be among Lacombe’s greatest strength in terms of identity and uniqueness. Other factors included Lacombe’s physical beauty, proximity to other central locations and the variety of educational programs within the City.
In terms of the City of Lacombe’s programs and services, those surveyed identified the Lacombe Fire Department as the service they were most satisfied with, having a 91% satisfaction rate. Child care was identified as the least satisfactory service, with a satisfaction rating of only 23%.
Of course, the survey was also used to get some feedback regarding Lacombe’s current hot-button topic, waste management. Seventy-four per cent of residents surveyed were satisfied with the household waste collection and disposal in Lacombe, but only 42% were satisfied with the available recycling options in the City. Eighty-eight percent of those surveyed said they would use community green grass bins to dispose of compostable material and 87% said they currently use the Wolf Creek Recycle Depot. Residents surveyed also identified more/bigger bins, more frequent emptying of bins, better signage and labeling and the accepting of more items as ways to improve the recycle depot.
The survey identified the greatest issues facing Lacombe City council were attracting business and development as well as general garbage and recycling services.