A survey suggests fixing the roads is still the issue Prince George residents think should be at the top of city council's to-do list.
Thirty per cent of respondents to a telephone survey conducted between July 13 and July 25 by Mustel Group identified road rehabilitation as needing the most attention from city council, compared to 35 per cent of respondents in 2014 and 18 per cent in 2013.
Economic development and downtown improvement followed as the next most-important issues (10 per cent of respondents) followed by infrastructure issues (seven per cent).
When asked about what services, funded by tax revenue, were of the highest priority to residents, survey respondents placed snow control, the city's drinking water supply and police and fire protection and road rehabilitation in the top five.
This is the third year that the city has hired Mustel to conduct a public opinion poll in the lead up to the annual budget preparation.
More than 3,700 calls were made to reach the necessary 400 respondents. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus five per cent, 9.5 times out of 10.
Each year, in addition to gauging public temperature on services, the survey is also used to get a snapshot of other city-related issues.
Respondents were asked to weigh in on whether they think the city's method of setting employee salaries and benefits based on other B.C. municipalities and similar jobs in the city's public and private sector organizations is reasonable. Similar to the 2014 result, 73 per cent of respondents indicated they agreed with that method.
This year's survey included questions about customer service. Less than half of the respondents indicated they had contacted the city in the past year and a majority who had did so for tax, utility or parking ticket payments.
When asked if they would be interested in attending a city council town hall meeting in their neighbourhood, less than half of the respondents were enthused. Only 43 per cent said they would be interested.
But city council is coming anyway.
During the month of October, the city has scheduled five neighbourhood meetings throughout the city to collect feedback on parks and recreation, roads and utilities, housing and developing and other city initiatives.
The schedule for the meetings is as follows:
Oct. 1: East Bowl, at the South Fort George Family Resource Centre
Oct. 7: Blackburn, at Blackburn Community Hall
Oct. 14: Vanway/Beaverly/Haldi, at Vanway elementary school
Oct. 21: College Heights, at Columbus Community Hall
Oct. 28: West Bowl, at the Kinsmen Hall
The two-hour long sessions begin at 6:30 p.m. and conclude with a question-and-answer period for mayor and members of city council.
