By WMBD TV

NORMAL – In an effort to get the opinion of the public, the town of Normal has received the results of their 2nd wave of community surveys.

With the first surveys being sent out last year, the second round of surveys have produced results.

What a town official says

There were 502 residents who responded to the survey, which Cathy Oloffson, director of communications for the town of Normal, said that even with 52,618 residents as of 2023, it’s actually a good amount of participants.

“We partner with Zencity to do a scientific representative sample,” she said, “and they’ve determined that getting at least 500 responses allows them to then rake weight the responses against our census data to make it representative of all of the communities.”

Raking in a survey means pulling different describers such as age or gender to figure out and stabilize the results. So with 500 or more responses, the town can have accurate data.

“That means that people find the town a Normal a great community with wonderful quality of life to live in, and that they plan to stay,” she said, “and that’s what we want. We want our residents to want to continue to live here.”

50% of the people surveyed said the town “exhibits transparency and accountability.” This is up 8% since the first survey went out.

“We attribute that increase to the fact that there’s some seasonality and to the number of times that we’re out in the community talking about the budget,” Oloffson said. “But internally because of these results we’ve talked about how can we talk about the budget and be as transparent as possible with people throughout the year.”

Quality of life

Zach Dietmeier, chief operating officer of the Bloomington-Normal Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, sees the survey results as highly favorable.

“The overall sentiment for living in Bloomington Normal is that it’s a very positive place to live,” he said.

Normal, along with their sister city Bloomington, hosts events all year that generate profit for both municipalities.

Events in Normal include the IHSA State Championships for Football, along with the State Championships for Girls Basketball, which is upcoming in a few weeks, both held at Illinois State University.

“Our economic impact for the last year, the actual school academic year, was a little over $9 million for those events, and that’s a pretty good bang for the buck with what we look for in those,” Dietmeier said.

The surveys are sent out every six months. To see ongoing and completed projects, and to make your voice heard, click here for the Normal Forum.

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