If you’re a Conestogo resident, there’s a good chance that telemarketer you hang up on at dinnertime will be a township employee.
Looking for input on how to improve the park there, the recreation department plans to use a telephone survey to gauge public opinion.
Customer service staff at the Woolwich Memorial Centre will be the ones making the calls, looking for responses from 75 households, director of recreation and facilities Karen Makela told councillors meeting Tuesday night. Information from the calls will be joined with data from an online survey and public meeting.
Faulty execution of the online survey makes a telephone poll the better option at this point, she said in response to Coun. Allan Poffenroth’s suggestion that phone surveys are perhaps “antiquated” in comparison to the internet options.
Her department wants to have the best information possible before deciding how to spend some $130,000 allocated for the Evening Star Lane park, said Makela.
At a budget meeting January 24, councillors heard from representatives of the Conestogo Recreation Association calling for the restoration of the old tennis courts, which have been unusable for years. They requested the township look at a multi-use pad which could be used for tennis and basketball, while serving as the base of a skating rink in the winter.
On the subject of soliciting public input, Goss said association members would be happy to go door-to-door with a survey rather than paying a polling company for help, saving the township money.
When Goss asked how much that would cost, Mayor Todd Cowan replied simply “not very much,” appearing dismissive of the suggestion.
Asked by Coun. Bonnie Bryant about the timeline for improvements at the community park, Makela said sorting through public input by the end of February would allow for work to begin in the spring, with completion in time for the summer season.
Residents are keen to have something in place soon, said Goss, noting there’s little in the way of recreational opportunities for young people, who have a hard time getting elsewhere to find such facilities.
The infrastructure at the park has had minimal maintenance in the past 15 years, so improvements are overdue, she said.
