Stevensville survey results are in

by John Dowd

The Town of Stevensville has released the results of the Stevensville Community Survey and officials are excited about the feedback they received. According to town officials, they were advised by Great West Engineering, the firm aiding the town in its Growth Policy Update project, that a good expectation would be a 20% response rate. However, officials were pleased that the response rate was better than that.

According to Jenelle Berthoud, Stevensville Town Clerk, the survey saw over 150 responses. Stevensville Mayor Bob Michalson went door-to-door to give out surveys to hundreds of homes and Berthoud went to numerous businesses all around the Stevensville area. They both believe this effort helped get a higher response rate. 

According to Berthoud, “There were so many important pieces that we all talk about,” which she believes were represented in the responses. 

According to Berthoud, the planning and zoning board, and the town staff, are grateful to all who participated in the survey. The results from the survey are available online on the Town of Stevensville website. Something else of note, mentioned by Berthoud, was that all of the written responses were transcribed by Great West Engineering, so interested parties can read those individual responses as well as the general vote numbers. Question number 10, the final one, saw a significant number of written responses. According to Berthoud, these answers, and others, provide “opportunities to help educate,” showcasing areas the town can be more informative on. 

Some interesting feedback from the survey included how over 90% of the respondents claimed they own their own home. However, regarding development, over 70% saw the need for single family homes over all other kinds, including apartments, rental homes, and even senior housing. 

Additionally, two of the greatest concerns to the respondents were community services, like law enforcement, library, etc, and infrastructure, like sewer, streets, water, etc. Least important was housing development. According to Michalson, the issues they have been talking about in Stevensville Town Hall proved to be common community concerns as well. He specifically mentioned continuing work on sussing out water system leaks, and upgrading the wastewater treatment facility, which is nearing the end of its lifespan. 

In the survey, participants were asked about projects they would like to see the Town focus on. The top of these by far was the water system, followed by street maintenance. Town beautification projects, street lighting, schools and parking all fell to the bottom. 

As far as improving the downtown, great interest was shown on advertising community events. However, the second greatest interest was in the “other” category, where numerous suggestions were made, including “allow people outside of city limits on the town council,” “clean up the store fronts,” and library updates.

Looking at the parks, survey participants showed great interest in improving restroom facilities and about half were concerned with swimming pool improvements. There was also some interest in improving trail systems. 

The public was split on a dedicated parks tax, with those who said “yes” to it having a slight edge in votes. Such a thing, according to the survey, would aid in improving and maintaining the town parks and recreation facilities. Michalson proposed this idea, hoping that having a dedicated park district would help lessen that burden on the community, which serves more than just the immediate Stevensville community and town people. 

The Town will be hosting a Growth Policy Update Open House in October, which they hope many will attend. The open house will discuss a lot of this feedback, and the state of the Growth Policy Update project. They plan to use this feedback to inform choices on future growth, and the survey results will help finish the Growth Policy, allowing the Town to become more competitive in grant applications. 

The next Planning and Zoning Board meeting will be on September 10, at 5 p.m. in Stevensville Town Hall. Michalson and Berthoud hope members of the community can make it to that meeting as well, and say that there will be an interesting guest presentation. The topic discussed at that meeting will be past projects Stevensville has undertaken and important future projects that deserve focus from the town.