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November 21 , 2008

Survey Reveals Town Residents' Satisfaction

By Jackie Allder Observer Staff Writer

Town residents are more than satisfied with the services provided to them, according to a survey conducted by Continental Research Associates, Inc., for the Town of Herndon. Continental Research defines "satisfaction" as achieving more than 80 percent satisfaction ratings, and 24 of 25 town services or characteristics included in the survey were in that range.

"I think it's just extraordinary how these results turned out," said Jeannine Perry, senior project director with Continental Research. Perry said she has conducted numerous surveys, and she generally does not see results such as these. "You just keeping going up and up and up," she said, highlighting the town's improved scores from previous years.

Customer service, programs and services at the Herndon Community Center topped the list of services with more than 99 percent satisfied, and the Herndon Centennial Golf Course also achieved high satisfaction levels with 98.2 percent. Also receiving more than 95 percent satisfaction ratings were water and sewer services, recycling and trash collection, the quality of the town parks, and the response time of the Herndon Police Department, among others.

The survey also showed satisfaction with the town's snow removal services, stormwater management off town streets and the condition of sidewalks. Surveyed residents said they were satisfied with the condition of the town streets, but they reported only 77 percent satisfaction for the flow of traffic.

According to the survey report, the top three traffic issues involved congestion on Elden Street and the Herndon Parkway and synchronization of stoplights along main thoroughfares. However, Continental Research reported that the satisfaction level has increased steadily since the town's survey in 2000.

Suggestions were also offered on ways in which the town could improve and the top recommendations were to decrease the number of people loitering, improve "unattractive areas" in the town and open a day labor site. Others said the town had too many overcrowded homes and illegal immigrants, the traffic lights are not synchronized and there is too much congestion on the streets.

Perry said the town received excellent feedback from residents, but it still has areas to address. "There's obviously still room to do things better," Councilman Bill Tirrell agreed, but overall he said he was thrilled with the results. "What we've unearthed here is simply the value of our staff," to local residents, he said.

Councilman Richard Downer said he was not surprised that the results showed such satisfaction with town services.

Continental Research surveyed 300 randomly selected residents in the Town of Herndon from Sept. 2 to 25. The survey consisted of an 18-minute telephone interview, and the margin of error is between 1.1 percent and 5.5 percent, according to Perry.