Care to weigh in on La Plata County, its future and priorities? You might be in luck.
La Plata County officials are asking for residents to participate in an annual survey conducted on the government’s behalf by New Bridge Strategy.
Each spring since 2021, pollsters have reached out to residents of La Plata County by phone and email with a slate of questions. The survey will begin this year on Tuesday, and take place over several days. Requests for participation are typically scattered so as to include input from different geographical parts of the county, as well as key demographic subgroups such as gender and age.
In 2023, the survey results were based on responses from 300 registered voters and are reviewed by county officials during the Board of County Commissioners annual retreat.
Last year, 51% of respondents said things in the county were headed in the right direction, while 45% said they were going in the wrong direction (the survey had an overall 5.66% margin of error). This result indicated a bounce-back from 2022, when just 41% of respondents said things were headed in the right direction, down from 52% in 2021.
Over the past three years, a majority of voters said they were confident in La Plata County’s ability to spend taxpayer funds wisely.
Democrats and independent voters listed affordable housing as the most important priorities for county government, while Republicans listed repairing roads and law enforcement resources as top issues.
The results help the BOCC weigh how well the government is doing, BOCC Chairman Matt Salka said.
“If it was low results, saying ‘hey, they’re not doing a good job,’ (or) ‘we don’t trust the stewards of our tax dollars,’ that would show those results,” he said.
Voters contacted by the pollsters sometimes suspect the call or email is a scam, Salka said, and will contact the county to verify the legitimacy of the contact. So officials want to spread the word that the survey is in fact legitimate.
“It really helps benefit and give us an idea of how well we’re doing our job or not doing our job,” he said.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
