Survey results were presented at Wednesday night’s Board of Supervisors meeting. The survey measured how satisfied residents are with their community and with government services.
Data was collected from 801 respondents from July through December 2022 through social media, mobile apps, local websites and survey panels.
“If you were like me, and you saw this score, you would think it’s low because a high school grading scale is very different,” said Jennifer Whetzel, speaking on behalf of the County Administrator’s office. “But we were told that this is a very good grade.”
Whetzel reported that overall satisfaction in Augusta County was 12 percent higher than cohorts in localities within South Carolina, Virginia and North Carolina.
The score was calculated grading 16 characteristics of the County including affordable housing, quality of life, how likely you would be to recommend Augusta County as a place to live, how likely you are to stay in Augusta County, jobs that pay a living wage and access to health care, education and public safety.
Whetzel said that residents said they loved the mountains and beauty of the area. The survey also showed concerns about internet services, taxes and roads.
Among the survey findings were:
- 67 percent of residents are satisfied with the quality of the library system
- 65 percent of respondents completely support providing body cameras and dash cameras for the county sheriff’s deputies
- 47 percent of respondents completely support using county taxes to fund body cameras and dash cameras
- 3 percent of residents are satisfied with the availability of jobs that pay a living wage
The survey is available online for community members to continue to offer input.
“I want to encourage folks to comment on surveys and things like that, because that’s how we gain our information on how some things that we look at, pertaining to the County, on setting a lot of things up,” said Michael Shull, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, at last night’s meeting.
“We will be pushing it out to the public just overall so that they have more easily access for it,” said Whetzel.
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