City seeks survey participants

The City of Hill City is asking residents to respond to an upcoming survey.
The request came from city administrator Nate Anderson at the Jan. 27 Hill City Common Council meeting.
While it is unclear how the survey will be administered, what is clear is that responses to the survey are important and the benefit to the city huge.
Anderson said the survey will help Hill City qualify for Community Development Block Grants. These grants could offset costs for reducing the upcoming costs for the proposed water and sewer  projects.
“This grant could be a huge piece of reducing the burden of our water and sewer upgrades that we have,” Anderson  told council members.  “I’m  not sure the value but millions in debt forgiveness in terms of knocking something off that $17 million forecast.”
Anderson said the message “we want to get out to our community  here is  this survey is 100 percent anonymous and it does not get released to anybody other than (Black Hills  Council of Local Governments) who pull the data together and use that for application submission for the grant.”
He emphasized the data will not be shared with law enforcement or immigration. Anderson said not every household in Hill City will be surveyed.
Black Hills Council of Local Governments compiles a random list of addresses which it then gives to the city who is in charge of the surveying.
The random survey is based on street address. According to Anderson the survey asks three questions: how many people are in the residence and based on that number, whether the occupants income is above or below a certain threshold.
“For example, for a family of four it would be $71,000. All you have to do is check above or below that amount,” he said. “The remainder of the questions ask if the residence is occupied at least six months out of the year and if it is the respondent’s primary residence. It is just three questions long. There’s the optional race and ethnicity questions on the back that would also  help us if the community members were willing to fill that out. But those are optional.”
Anderson says that regardless of income, “a non answer counts as above that median threshold and so some of our problems last year  were non answers.”
He says the city will be working with clergy members and merchants but says “really this needs to be word of mouth. If you get this survey in the mail or get somebody knocking on your door please do not worry about the law enforcement or other  implications of filling this survey out. It would be very beneficial to us from a community perspective.”
Anderson said surveys will begin next week and that the results must be submitted by March 1. The city can survey individuals via mail, phone or in person.
City finance officer Stacia Tallon said last time the survey was distributed via postal mail with a return envelope provided.
 Tallon says she thinks the city must make three attempts before moving onto the next household.
Anderson said he thinks the city will get more timely results by knocking on doors.
City officials say the city was off by one or two households last time and stress the benefits to the city to get household participation.