Town may conduct survey of residents

The Town of Fort Frances wants to know if residents think it’s doing a good job and will undertake a citizen satisfaction survey in the near future—if council approves the questionnaire at Monday night’s regular meeting.
CAO Bill Naturkach said the telephone survey, which “covers everything,” came out of the strategic planning process that town administration and representatives from the various executive committees have been working at for the past year.
“This will help priorize the services we provide,” he noted. “It will show what we do well and what we maybe haven’t been doing all that well.
“From front-line delivery of services to whether we treat our customers right, we plan to get a better idea of what the citizens think,” added Naturkach.
He said such priorizing is useful not only when the town is involved in its annual budget process, but also for when it’s applying for government funding.
The draft for the survey is up for approval, perhaps with some amendments, at Monday night’s meeting. If so, Naturkach said it could get underway by the end of the week.
He added care will be taken to call residents at various times of the day and various days of the week in an effort to get a wide cross-section of respondents.
Other business at Monday night’s meeting will include:
•a bear protocol agreement between the town and Ministry of Natural Resources;
•the tender for Phase II of the road works 2002 project;
•a request from the local Arthritis Society to proclaim September as Arthritis Month;
•an agreement with Lakeland Personnel regarding school crossing guards;
•a tender for a water distribution system network analysis;
•a report on the summer traffic situation in the west end of town;
•a report on the success of Household Hazardous Waste Day 2002;
•a personnel report from human resources manager Christine Ruppenstein;
•the 2002 levy estimate from the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board;
•a report on downtown parking;
•a drainage concern from resident David Bliss;
•a letter requesting permission to place a bench on the boulevard in front of the Red Dog Inn; and
•a by-law to amend the smoking ban in buildings and vehicles under the town’s jurisdiction (this would exempt the ban from events that were booked at town facilities, such as the Memorial Sports Centre, before July 22).