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Augusta County launches survey tool to better gauge community concerns

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Augusta County has launched a new public survey tool to get a better handle on priorities and concerns on a wide range of county services and the local quality of life.

The community survey will enable the county to more holistically understand residents’ concerns and enhance the responsiveness to community priorities.

The survey will begin to gather confidential responses from Augusta County residents each year. The survey will appear to residents through the use of digital ads in various locations such as news websites, social media platforms, blogs, and apps.

Based on responses, the survey will measure resident satisfaction regarding local services and quality of life in the county, while also identifying key concerns residents want the county to address.

This initiative builds on an existing partnership between Augusta County and Zencity, the community input platform used by local governments to hear from more residents and get meaningful and actionable insights. Since 2020 Augusta County has worked with Zencity to better understand feedback from residents about the issues that matter to them the most—whether on publicly available social media channels or comments on traditional news sources —helping the county to hear from all corners of the community.

Additionally, last year Zencity conducted surveys for Augusta County regarding residents’ concerns and priorities related to internet access and of those related to utility-scale solar projects and other renewable energy land uses. Once the necessary sampling of responses has been received, Augusta County will share results publicly.

Zencity’s community survey engages voices from all areas of the community. To do so, Zencity sets response targets based on U.S. Census data about the municipality. Zencity ensures the security and privacy of its data and survey respondents. Survey responses are anonymous, unless a respondent chooses to share their email address for follow-up purposes, in which case their survey responses are kept confidential.

Zencity does not collect a respondent’s name, address, or any other personally-identifying information. Zencity’s weighting accounts for the responses of every single person who answered a question. The responses give a proportional voice to all demographics (e.g., by age, sex, race, education level, and income level) based on the makeup of the county.

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