Unless the survey fairy, first cousin to the tooth fairy, comes through, Bogalusa’s goal of at least 1,001 responses to the Louisiana Development Ready Communities survey will fall short.
Through Friday afternoon there were 542 completed surveys — 361 online from community members, 81 online from the business community and 100 paper surveys tallied by Southeastern University.
In addition, there were 129 partial online surveys for a total response of 671 — or 67 percent of the mayor’s goal of “one more than last year’s top respondent (DeRidder).”
Project Chair Sandy Bloom said the Bogalusa LDRC committee would like to have more business surveys.
“We really need and want that input,” she told wpnewsblog. “With the online availability of the surveys, they can be done at any time of the day or night.”
On Monday, the program entered the second stage when about 100 persons attended two Town Hall meetings at the Bogalusa Senior Center. Starting out as one large audience, the attendees were broken up into subgroups, where they listed the communities assets, drawbacks and, in a bit of wishful thinking, what they would change if given a magic wand and the opportunity to wave it over the city.
Bogalusa is one of eight communities selected to participate in this year’s program, which is funded by the state and essentially helps a community map its own plan for the future.
“This is an exciting time,” Bogalusa Mayor Chares Mizell said. “We have the opportunity to make a difference and to do things differently and take a new course. Not everyone … not every community … gets to do that, but we can. It just requires participation so that we might prepare, plan and execute.”
Links to both the community and business survey may be found at the top right column on this web page.
