A small-town atmosphere, family-oriented feel, parks spaces, public safety and shopping are among the reasons residents are happy to live in Okotoks. The household survey results, which were compiled by consultants Banister Research, were presented to council on Aug. 20, and Okotoks is scoring high on most fronts. More than 4,200 households responded to the survey, a significant increase over the 3,000 that completed the survey in 2013. “In terms of positive versus negative, Okotoks is overwhelmingly positive,” said Tracy With, vice-president of Banister Research, which does surveys for about 30 municipalities in Alberta. “Your poor and very poor ratings together are under one per cent. I have two communities that would come even close to this. Nobody is as low as you are on these measures.” People credited their positive experience in Okotoks with its overall atmosphere, the parks and green spaces in town, pathways, amenities and services, facilities, and access to shopping, she said. However, she said there’s always some bad with the good. When asked how Okotoks could be improved respondents mentioned taxes, water issues, and limiting growth. Many were also concerned about snow removal. “You will see a theme of snow removal in roads and maintenance this year,” said With. “We do know you got slammed with a couple of big storms. This is a point-in-time setting…Next year if we have a balmy winter you may not see this continue to be top of mind.” Knowing snow removal would be an issue, Banister Research asked respondents how much more they would be willing to pay to increase snow clearing in residential areas. “Sixty per cent, though they may have been dissatisfied, are not willing to pay any more for the service,” said With. “So they’d like to be grumpy about it, but they’re not willing to put any money towards the service.” However, 31 per cent indicated they would gladly pay $50 more in taxes to increase the level of service and six per cent said they would shell out an additional $100 annually. Jamie Greenshields, Okotoks transportation manager, said he wasn’t surprised to hear people complain about snow removal after the past winter. From ruts on roads to delayed snow removal, the transportation department fielded calls from several residents through the winter, he said. “We really try to educate people and in the world of snow we just can’t make it go away, so we try to tell people to plan accordingly, take some extra time, winter is a factor of living in our country,” said Greenshields. “Especially this past winter, we just literally ran out of room to put snow because we had no Chinooks to help us out.” He said roads and maintenance may also have taken a hit on the survey due to delays in street sweeping, line painting and pot hole repair, which would usually be done around the time the online surveys were distributed to households. The snow didn’t really melt away from most streets until early May, putting everything else behind, he said. “I think that was a huge factor,” said Greenshields. “The past three or four years we pretty much start street sweeping end of March or early April, this year it wasn’t until almost the middle of May.” In terms of public safety, 91 per cent of respondents rated the community as a safe place to live, with 30 per cent giving it a rating of “very good” and 61 per cent a rating of “good.” With said the number was comparably higher than in other communities – though there are still some concerns in the community. The top issue listed was property crime and theft, coming in at 70 per cent. “About three or four years ago, property crime was not the top of my list but considering the economy in the past few years, more and more theft and more and more issues have risen, and we are seeing a spike,” said With. “Given the recent bump in the economy, I would hope to see this trending down in the next few years.” Other concerns were drugs in town, vandalism, traffic safety and speeding, safety of pedestrian and cyclists, and graffiti, she said. Municipal enforcement manager Kelly Stienwand said the number of people in Okotoks who indicate they feel safe in town is something to be proud of. In addition, there was a 68 per cent overall satisfied or very satisfied rating for protective services, which he said is a high number relative to some communities. “We are comparably quite high, and that is reflective of the overall safety rating we did receive from our citizens,” said Stienwand. However, he said seeing the concerns raised by respondents came as no surprise. Public safety is top priority for most people, he said. Though Okotoks rates high, he said there’s always work to be done. “We’re doing really well as a community and we can’t take our foot off the gas,” said Stienwand. “We have to stay vigilant, we have to be out there working hard to ensure we continue to do our due diligence within our community, to keep an eye on these statistics so people continue to feel like they’re living in a safe community.” Mayor Bill Robertson said he’s pleased with the survey results, which he called one of the “most valuable” initiatives council does during its term, as it provides the Town with an overall feel of how it’s doing. “Overall I’m happy with these results,” he told council. [yop_poll id="10"]
