Erica Tarasoff
Rossland News
The City of Rossland, with assistance from Columbia Basin Trust, has launched a new survey as part of the State of Rossland 2014 Project. In a phone interview, The Rossland News spoke with Rossland City Hall’s Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, Tracey Butler with regard to the survey.
“Okay, so the whole survey comes from an exercise that the city went through a few years ago called our Visions to Action which brought us our Sustainability Plan. So in that plan there are certain indicators. And so what we do is every few years we run the survey to see if we are working toward those indicators,” Ms. Butler explained.
The indicators being measured include social issues such as crime rates, volunteerism, cultural opportunities participation and sense of community. They also cover the topics of energy consumption, amount of water used, reservoir levels and solid wastes, among others. In all, 25 indicators are used to measure the rate of success of the implementation of the Sustainability Plan.
Specifically, the survey will collect information on Rosslander’s sense of community, participation in recreation and leisure activities and satisfaction with governance in Rossland. These will be used in conjunction with information collected regarding the other indicators to provide an updated view on the success of the plan. This will help identify priorities for future sustainability efforts by the Sustainability Commission and Rossland City Council.
If you’d like to learn about the Sustainability Plan, you can visit City Hall in person, or their website, for more information.
Ms. Butler encourages all eligible Rossland residents to complete the survey. “Because then we know, of course we do. Because then we know where we’re going, how we’re doing.”
The Community Survey can be completed online at www.surveymonkey.com/s/SofR2014.
Surveys must be completed by October 31, 2014. All members of households who are over the age of 14 may complete this survey. Paper copies are available for pick up at City Hall.