Lake Zurich will want your opinion this summer

Some Lake Zurich residents will be asked to provide their opinions on general topics - such as quality of life and satisfaction with village services - along with local issues in a survey this summer.

Village Manager Jason Slowinski said the responses from the scientific National Citizen Survey likely would help in deciding priorities and possible spending when it comes time to form the 2016-17 budget this year. He said the goal is for the surveys to be mailed in July and returned about a month later.

Slowinski told the village board at a meeting Monday the survey stems from a Lake Zurich strategic plan goal of boosting community engagement.

"We wanted to get a better sense of the feedback of residents on our service levels and what they experience," Slowinski said, "and then also their thoughts on the future of municipal services in Lake Zurich."

Roughly 1,400 of Lake Zurich's 6,563 households will receive the National Citizen Survey in the mail, but those who respond may answer the questions online. The survey is sponsored by the International City/County Management Association in cooperation with the National Research Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Generic questions in the survey will measure quality of life, satisfaction with village services, personal safety and community characteristics. The answers will allow the scientific poll to measure Lake Zurich against similar towns.

At least two Lake Zurich-specific questions will be allowed in addition to the 13 general queries. After some discussion, Mayor Thomas Poynton asked village board trustees to provide their question ideas to Slowinski by Monday, June 8, with discussion and final selection expected a week later.

Trustee Marc Spacone said it would be worthwhile to have a question about interest in pursuing Lake Michigan water and a willingness of residents to pay for it.

"One, it is actionable," Spacone said of his desire for the lake water question. "Two, it is the easiest opportunity for us to get the broadest response as we can for guidance to go in a particular direction. At least we'll have an idea. And from there, we can go."

Trustee Jonathan Sprawka said village officials should receive rich information to be culled from the scientific survey.

"We're taking a heath check of how we're doing as a village, the services we provide, the interactions between one another in the community," Sprawka said.