Survey results overwhelmingly positive
By Melissa Muntz Community Reporter

Shrewsbury - The 2007 Citizen Survey performed by Clark University has found that the majority of people are very happy with town services and the quality of life in Shrewsbury.

Working with the Citizen Advisory Board and Town Manager Daniel Morgado, Clark students developed a questionnaire that surveyed people about their overall satisfaction with the town and its employees, their thoughts about the best way to fund trash removal, if they would support a Proposition 2-1/2 override, what departments they believed need additional funding and which departments they considered to be over-funded.

Of 1,425 surveys received by Shrewsbury residents over 18 who were chosen at random, 444 were completed and returned.

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being poor and 1 being excellent, 85.3 percent of those responding ranked the quality of life in Shrewsbury as either 1 or 2.

Of the respondents, 85.4 percent rated Shrewsbury as a good place to raise children with only 3 percent responding with 4 or 5.

To help town officials make a decision about trash removal, residents were asked to choose which of four funding options they would prefer to see: cut other town services to pay for trash removal, go to a pay-asyou throw program, vote for a Proposition 2-1/2 override or charge a flat user fee.

Support for each of these options was nearly equal, with pay-as-you-throw receiving the highest support, followed by a flat user fee.

People were also asked to rate their satisfaction with diff erent town services.

Fire and ambulance services, trash collection, Senior Center services, library services and police services all received an "excellent" response.

In terms of spending, people were asked if spending on diff erent departments should be increased, maintained or reduced. The areas where the highest number of people felt increased spending was needed are public schools, police services and fire services.

Senior Center service was ranked the highest in terms of where people believed decreased spending was needed.

The majority of people said they believed spending on the Parks and Recreation Department, ambulance services, trash removal, library and road maintenance should continue at the current level.

Of the 444 people surveyed, 277 said they would support an override to pay for town services as compared to 135 who said they would not support an override.

The findings will now be analyzed by the Board of Selectmen and will serve as a tool the board can use when crafting the fiscal year 2009 budget.