BARBARA CHRISTIANSEN - North County Staff | Posted: Sunday, September 16, 2007 11:00 pm
An overwhelming majority -- 93 percent -- of American Fork residents would definitely or probably recommend the city as a good place to live.
That's according to a survey conducted for the city by Dan Jones and Associates. Jones presented the results of the survey at a recent City Council meeting. The survey was conducted in June and involved contacting 401 households by telephone.
"People like living in American Fork," Jones said. "You have a great community. It is one of the favorite places I have ever surveyed to live, from the research."
He referred to the number of residents who would recommend American Fork as a good place to live.
Seventy-two percent said they would definitely recommend it.
"That is high," he said. "That is a beauty, one you can brag about. Usually about 15 percent are disenchanted, sometimes it is 25 percent. Yours is around five percent."
"The people we surveyed feel it is a privilege to live in American Fork," Jones added. "You are doing a great job."
Mayor Heber Thompson said he was pleased with the survey results.
"It sounds like pretty good news for us," he said. "We thought it was extremely helpful. There were insights on how we interface between the public and the city. There were positive comments and areas for improvement. Overall we thought it was very positive."
The survey included questions about city services and transportation, and allowed participants to suggest a major improvement they would like to see in the next five years that would make living in American Fork better.
Transportation rated high on the list of concerns of the respondents. Seventeen percent said growth and related congestion were the aspect of living in American Fork they least liked, while 16 percent said traffic was their biggest concern. Other related answers included road issues (6 percent), business growth (3 percent) and congestion (2 percent).
The local government should resolve road issues and have more freeway exits, according to 23 percent of respondents. Ten percent mentioned general traffic issues. Two percent had issues with traffic lights and the same percentage expressed interest in TRAX, a light rail transportation system now in operation in Salt Lake City.
Two percent had issues with the police department.
"That is usually higher -- much, much higher," Jones said.
Respondents said their favorite reasons for living in American Fork included the city's location (20 percent), the people and neighbors (16 percent), small town atmosphere (15 percent) and being quiet and peaceful (10 percent).
The residents rated city services on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being very dissatisfied and 5 being very satisfied.
"Anything over a four is outstanding," Jones said.
Services rated in that range included sewer, library and garbage. Respondents gave a 3.5 rating to the courtesy of employees, parks and recreation, crime prevention, water services, handicapped services, economic development, traffic enforcement, snow removal, arts, animal control, broadband service, the Steel Days celebration, fitness services for youth and fitness services for families.
Seventy-two percent of the respondents or their family members had used the city's fitness center in the last two years. Of those, 77 percent were satisfied or very satisfied with the facility.
"That is three-to-one over those who are somewhat dissatisfied," Jones said. "You are doing fine."
Respondents gave the statement, "I feel safe living in American Fork," a rating of 4.36.
"You are not going to have anybody beat you," Jones told city officials.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.