Mundelein police, fire departments score high in community survey
Mundelein's police and fire departments notched high marks in a recent community survey about village services.
Eighty-eight percent of residents who took the survey said the police department meets or exceeds their expectations. Only 7 percent said the department doesn't meet expectations.
The fire department scored even better, with 90 percent of the people surveyed saying the department meets or exceeds their expectations. A mere 2 percent said the department doesn't meet expectations.
Mundelein Public Safety Director Eric Guenther was very pleased residents think so highly of the police and fire departments.
"Customer service has to be at the forefront of public safety," he said. "We feel it is what our citizens both expect and deserve."
The survey results were released during this week's village board meeting. The data was collected by Fako Research & Strategies, a Lemont company.
The 30-question survey was administered in March and April by telephone and over the internet. More than 440 people were surveyed.
The survey asked people about specific departments, as well as the village newsletter, the ease of navigating the village website, the recognizability of the village logo and other aspects of the community.
It showed 69 percent of people think the downtown's appearance has been improving in recent years, and 74 percent think the general appearance of Mundelein's parks has improved.
The research also revealed that 89 percent of the people surveyed think Mundelein is as safe or safer than other communities in the Northwest suburbs.
"That's a really good number," said David Fako, the research company's president.
Residents were less pleased with the public works department, which oversees street maintenance and snow removal, among other tasks.
Seventy-eight percent of the people who took the survey said the public works department meets or exceeds expectations, while 13 percent said it doesn't meet expectations.
And only 63 percent of the people surveyed thought the public works department's street maintenance efforts are satisfactory.
"This is an area where I think we could look for a little bit of improvement," Fako said.
Mundelein Public Works Director Adam Boeche acknowledged the community's concern and said his department is attacking the issue.
"Over the last five years, we have rehabilitated over 15 miles of road," Boeche said. "This level of remediation exceeds many community programs."
Another area that needs work, officials said, regards marketing. Only 67 percent of the people surveyed said they had seen Mundelein's star-shaped logo, even though it's been emblazoned on village vehicles, signs, letterhead and other objects since 2014.