• Photo was taken prior to COVID-19

MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - During the Meridian Township Board meeting on February 2, the Township discussed the possibility of making their own citizen survey for 2021.

Meridian Township usually conducts a citizen survey every three years to get feedback on how the Township can improve on issues important for the community, such as buffing local parks, or bolstering shopping centers. In previous years, the Township used a customized survey distributed from the International City Managers Association(ICMA), a company in Denver, Colorado. Typically, that survey would ask a series of questions, with the Township adding four to five questions of their own.

The ICMA would ask the same base questions to different cities, and the Township participated to compare themselves to other cities.

The past surveys have not been as successful as the Township hoped:

"The survey doesn't change much..the [Township] typically asks the same questions...its too mundane, not specific enough, and we really haven't used it at all...I think we should take a look at making our own survey," explained a Township Board of Trustees member.

The last survey found that citizens thought the economic centers and downtown should improve, but the reaction to the Township's parks were generally positive.

The last survey the Township conducted was three years ago, and circumstances have changed now with new issues amid the pandemic and others.

A custom survey would cost the Township roughly $15,000. On Tuesday, the Township brainstormed whether to use a different survey instrument. Some ideas that came up in the Board meeting Zoom call included putting the survey on a website with unique ID.

For more information on the Township citizen survey for 2021, visit the Meridian Township website at meridian.mi.us.