The city of Lake Mills is in the process of collecting feedback on the future of Sandy Beach this week, through a randomized survey being run by a UW system research center.
The City Council is hoping to wrap up its survey of residents regarding possible food service at Sandy Beach by the end of the week. Results from the survey, which began on Oct. 26, will help guide the city’s ongoing redevelopment of the Sandy Beach park.
The survey includes questions about how often residents have visited Sandy Beach and used its food service in the past. It also asks residents to rank their preferences for options such as concession stands, food trucks, a small-scale restaurant or a casual restaurant.
The survey was distributed randomly to Lake Mills residents, but the council has discussed opening the questionnaire to anyone who wants to participate.
“We have seen some questions from members of the community looking to participate in the survey that were not randomly selected,” city manager Drake Daily told the council at its Nov. 1 meeting.
Lake Mills contracted in August with the UW-River Falls Survey Research Center to design and distribute the survey. The SRC purchased, from a broker, a list of email addresses for residents of the City of Lake Mills and the Towns of Lake Mills, Aztalan and Milford, then sent the survey to a random sample of that list.
“Randomization allows for the construction of statistically valid estimates with a small sample size,” Daily wrote in an email. “Without randomization, the results would be more prone to bias and potentially less representative of the community.”
But the council has been fielding concerns from residents who did not receive the survey, hoping to be included in the process. An August letter to the council from James P. Noga, president of the Sandy Beach Mobile Home Association, asked the council to ensure it included mobile home residents, who may not be included in the list of permanent residents, in the input process.
The council will discuss making the survey more broadly available at its next meeting. But members raised concerns that doing so would jeopardize the statistical approach they had originally chosen.
“I’m really excited to hear that there are a lot of people who want to provide their input, that’s a good problem to have,” Councilmember Liesa Kerler said. “[But] a second survey which is not going through the same rigorous process could have a different result.”
The research center is aiming for 371 responses to the survey, which would allow it to achieve a 5% margin of error. As of Nov. 3, the city had received 259 responses and expected to reach its goal by Nov. 11.
The council will discuss opening the survey to the public at its Nov. 15 meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Lake Mills Municipal Building.
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