DIDSBURY - Town of Didsbury staff are scheduled to present an analysis report on the recent recreation and culture survey at this week's council meeting.
Raw data from the survey, which featured 420 valid responses, was made public at a recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
Council will utilize the report to request updates to any current plans, such as the 2013 recreation and culture master plan and Didsbury Memorial Complex outlying plan, said Nicole Aasen, Town of Didsbury manager of community services.
"The information may also be used in any future planning and budgeting decisions that council will make," said Aasen.
The survey featured questions regarding recreation and culture in the town.
Question #1 asked which outdoor recreation facilities respondents use. Greenspaces and parks received 273 votes (66.42 per cent), trails and pathways 270 votes (65.69 per cent), and playgrounds 196 votes (47.69 per cent). The lowest was tennis courts with 28 votes (6.81 per cent).
Of note, the current skatepark received 78 votes (18.25 per cent) and was sixth out of the 10 answer choices.
Question #2 asked respondents to rate their level of satisfaction with current recreation facilities. Trails and pathways received the most votes, with 53 respondents (13.55 per cent) indicating they are very satisfied and 179 (45.78 per cent) satisfied. Greenspaces and parks received the second most votes, with 38 (9.95 per cent) very satisfied and 182 (47.64 per cent) satisfied. Playgrounds was third with 37 votes (10.34 per cent) very satisfied and 149 votes (41.62 per cent) satisfied.
Question #3 asked how important are future improvements to current recreation facilities. First was trails and pathways with 242 votes (60.35 per cent) for very important and 110 votes (27.43 per cent) for somewhat important. Second was greenspaces and parks with 200 votes for very important (51.02 per cent), while third was playgrounds,169 votes for very important (46.05 per cent).
The skatepark placed fourth out of nine listed with 108 votes (30.59 per cent) for very important, while finishing second for most votes as unimportant with 137 votes (38.81 per cent). The tennis courts finished first for most votes as unimportant with 138 votes (39.66 per cent), while finishing eighth for most votes as very important with 47 votes (14.51 per cent).
Question # 4 had respondents rank nine current recreation facilities from most important to least important. Trails and pathways ranked first with a score of 7.09 including 115 votes for most important (33.72 per cent). Greenspaces and parks came second with a score of 7.02 including 56 most important votes (17.95 per cent), and third was playgrounds with a score of 6.50 including 50 most important votes (16.72 per cent).
Other facilities listed ranked in order (fourth to ninth) were sports fields - baseball/softball, skatepark, off-leash dog park, sports fields - soccer, basketball courts, and tennis courts.
Question #5 asked respondents to rank the proposed new facilities in the Didsbury Memorial Complex outlying plans by importance. First was the adventure playground with a score of 7.45, second was four-season washroom/shelter area with 7.35, and third was spray park/misting area with 7.31.
The remaining facilities in order were fourth additional parking, fifth in-ground skatepark, sixth full-size basketball court, seventh Japanese garden, eighth sand volleyball courts, and ninth tennis courts.
Question #6 asked which cultural facilities respondents currently use. Checking in first was the Didsbury Municipal Library with 319 votes (77.05 per cent), while coming second was Didsbury Museum with 191 votes (18.84 per cent). None was third with 78 votes (18.84 per cent).
Question # 7 asked respondents their level of satisfaction with current cultural facilities among three choices: library, museum and other (write in). Didsbury Muncipal Library received 124 votes for very satisfied (30.69 per cent of their total votes) and 153 for satisfied (37.87 per cent), and Didsbury Museum received 89 votes for very satisfied (24.18 per cent) and 152 votes (41.30 per cent) for satisfied. The library received 27 votes (6.68 per cent) for dissatisfied and 15 votes (3.71 per cent) for very dissatisfied, while the museum received six votes (1.63 per cent) for dissatisfied. There were eight comments out of 23 stating that the library needs more space.
Question #8 asked how important future improvements to current cultural facilities are. The library received 239 votes (60.05 per cent) for very important, 115 votes (28.89 per cent) for important, and 24 votes (6.03 per cent) for unimportant. Meanwhile, the museum received 111 votes (30.41 per cent) for very important, 176 votes (48.22 per cent) for important, and 45 votes (12.33 per cent) for unimportant.
Question # 9 asked respondents to write in anything else they would like to add. There were 203 responses on a number of topics with thoughts on an off-leash dog park, library expansion and proposed new skatepark among the most prominent.
Most respondents were between 30 and 45 years of age (146 total or 35.18 per cent) and female (69.76 per cent).
