Algonquin survey respondents not thrilled with traffic, taxes
Algonquin residents are mostly delighted to live in the “Gem of the Fox River Valley,” according to the results of a community survey;http://www.algonquin.org/egov/apps/document/center.egov?view=item the village released this week.
The 2013 survey said the village also has some work to do, primarily when it comes to traffic flow on major roads, ease of car travel through the village and the value of services for the taxes paid. “Our job is to make sure that our residents are happy,” Village President John Schmitt said. “In any areas they're unhappy, we have to either be able to fix the problems they're concerned about, or educate them to the realities.”
The village, which first ran the survey in 2012, conducted the community survey to see where it stands with its residents. It polls residents on many aspects of village life and cost less than $500 to run.
As part of those efforts, the village mailed the 2013 survey to 1,500 randomly selected residents. The overall response rate was 25.3 percent and the margin of error was plus or minus 5 percent.
Algonquin earned high marks on for being a good place to raise children (95.2 percent), for being a good place to live (93.3 percent), for its shopping (90.3 percent), for its neighborhoods being a good place to live (91.8 percent) and for the village's cleanliness (89.6 percent).
Moreover, 71.8 percent of the residents polled said they are likely to stay in Algonquin for the next five years.
“Those have always been our goals, to make Algonquin the most pleasant place to live that we can possibly make it,” Schmitt said. “Not only in the form of just the shopping, (but) everything. The architecture that we required builders to use for both commercial and residential — everything about the village with some minor exceptions — is really the way we wanted it to happen.”
The village received low marks in traffic flow on major streets (20.9 percent), employment opportunities (29.4 percent), ease of car travel throughout the village (31.7 percent), the value of services for the taxes paid to Algonquin (38.9 percent) and the ease of bike travel (53 percent).
When it comes to improving traffic flow, Schmitt said the village supports McHenry County's plans to widen Randall Road 3.5 miles north from County Line Road to Ackman Road in Crystal Lake. The planned Longmeadow Parkway tollway, at Huntley Road in West Dundee, also has the potential to improve transportation in and around the village and the region, he added.
As for the taxes, Schmitt said the village needs to better explain where the village figures on residents' tax bill.
“I don't know that they understand that the property taxes they pay, a very small portion of that goes to the village,” Schmitt said.
Algonquin leaders plan on conducting the survey again next year, with another random selection of 1,500 people, said Michael Kumbera, assistant to the village administrator. While most responses were stable, the village won't make data-driven decisions or analyze trends until that survey comes back. By that time, Algonquin would have three years of data to consider, he said.