Less than 1 percent of the people have spoken via a survey and Oxford Village officials seem pleased with the results.
“I just think that there’s some pretty good news in here,” said Manager Mark Slown to council at the Feb. 10 meeting. “I think you can take this home and feel pretty good about it.”
A total of 29 citizens (or 0.82 percent of village’s 3,540 residents) responded to the municipality’s recent survey entitled “Is the Village of Oxford Cool?”
“Even though it may not have been a scientific survey, it certainly gets a good feeling for the pulse out there,” said village President Steve Allen.
Approximately 1,600 surveys were included inside the last issue of the Village Voice newsletter which is mailed to all the postal addresses within the village. The survey was also available on-line at the village web site (www.villageofoxford.org) and at the village offices.
Under the survey results’ conclusions, Slown wrote, “Since the survey was not scientifically conducted and captured only a small portion of the population, it would be unwise to attach a great deal of significance to the results. . .However, bearing in mind these qualifications, the survey suggests a fair degree of satisfaction in general.”
In the survey, residents were asked to rate on a scale of 1 (strongly agree) to 6 (strongly disagree) seven general statements.
“The vast majority of the responses in all the categories were positive,” Slown said.
Only one of the 29 returned surveys was not scored because it contained only one written comment and no numeric ratings.
With regard to the statement, “I like the Village of Oxford,” all the repondents either slightly agreed, agreed or strongly agreed. More than half of the respondents (16 of 28) strongly agreed.
“No one said they didn’t like or disagreed with the statement, ‘I like the Village of Oxford,’” Slown told council. “That’s pretty amazing.”
In response to “I like to visit the downtown,” five of the 28 disagreed while the other 23 slightly agreed, agreed or strongly agreed.
The statement “I like my residential neighborhood” received slight to strong agreement from 25 respondents and slight disagreement from three individuals.
Seven of 27 indicated strong to slight disagreement with the statement “I like my local government,” while 20 individuals (or 74 percent) responded with slight to strong agreement.
“I don’t know too many elections where you get a 74 percent approval rating,” Slown told council.
“The Village of Oxford is cool” garnered strong to slight disagreement from eight out of 27 respondents, while the other 19 indicated the village is “cool” (or “well-appreciated”) to some degree. Fifteen of the 27 agreed or agreed strongly the village is cool.
“I like to use the village parks” drew disagreement or slight disagreement from four out of 27 respondents and agreement or strong agreement from 17 of 27.
In response to the statement, “The Village needs to improve,” 26 individuals agreed to some degree, with 18 of the 26 agreeing or strongly agreeing.
Following the numerical ratings, the survey asked for written responses to two questions – “What should the Village of Oxford do to improve?” and “What would make the Village of Oxford cool?” A majority of the respondents’ written answers are stated below.
Councilman Dave Bailey asked how many people connected with the village government in some way responded to the survey.
Slown said he knew of two such individuals, but only 12 of the 29 returned surveys contained a name, the rest were anonymous. Giving a name was a purely voluntary option.
When the question of how many council members participated in the survey arose, Allen said he did not because it would have “skewed” the results.
“You know how I feel,” Allen said.
Bailey was unsure whether or not he participated in the survey.
“I intended to, but I’ve forgotten whether I actually got around to it or not,” Bailey said. “I think I did.”