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Village Advancement Committee Survey

Following are the results of the Village Advancement Committee Survey of Village residents taken in October of 2007.

Village -Town Relations

1. Many of Vermont’s historic village governments have been dissolved in favor of larger town municipal governments. I believe Essex Junction’s village government should continue, and that the village community should resist efforts to dissolve the Village of Essex Junction government.

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
35%	27%	19%	9%

2. The Trustees should take no further action on separation or merger, and should continue with the present Village-Town relationship, in which Village residents continue to pay taxes to the Village and Town.

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
4%	5%	25%	66%

3. The Trustees should seek a tax adjustment so that Village residents stop paying taxes to the Town for services that the Village provides for itself and which the Town does not provide within the Village.

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
68%	25%	4%	3%

4. The Trustees should petition the Vermont Legislature to allow the Village of Essex Junction to become a completely independent community from Essex Town. Residents in each community would then only pay for services provided by their individual governments.

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
45%	22%	18%	14%

5. The Trustees should work with the Essex Town government to develop another plan for merging the Village and Town into a single community with an equalized tax rate

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
31%	21%	22%	26%

Municipal Services

6. I am satisfied with the quality of maintenance of Village roads, sidewalks, bike paths, and parks.

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
30%	60%	8%	2%

7. I am satisfied with the quality of Village water and sewer services

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
36%	60%	3%	1%

8. I am satisfied with the quality of Village administrative services (Village office, planning and zoning).

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
24%	63%	10%	3%

9. I am satisfied with the quality of the Brownell Library.

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
46%	52%	2%	<1%

10. I am satisfied with the quality of the Village Recreation Department

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
34%	60%	4%	2%

Quality of Life, Taxes, and Development

11. To sustain its historical, small community character, the Village should have a design control plan for guiding commercial development.

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
31%	57%	10%	2%

12. The Village should promote mixed use development (residential and business) in all commercial areas of the Village.

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
19%	60%	18%	3%

13. The Village Trustees should continue to support completion of the Circumferential Highway and actively oppose any other transportation initiatives for the Route 2A corridor, including a roundabout at Five Corners.

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
66%	22%	8%	4%

14. The Village government should adopt a one percent sales tax within the Village

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
12%	26%	37%	25%

15. The Village government should adopt an entertainment tax within the Village.

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
22%	33%	30%	15%

16. The Village school district should be merged with the Westford and Essex school districts to form a unified union school district (the vote is on November 6, 2007).

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
24%	37%	20%	19%

17. The Essex Police, fire departments, and local governments should make a renewed effort to publicize public safety and emergency response plans.

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
18%	67%	13%	2%

Access to Local Government

18. I would pay closer attention to local government issues if it was more convenient to do so.

Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
16%	57%	25%	2%

19. In order of preference, with 1 being most preferred and 5 being least preferred, the media from which I am most likely to get information about local government is: (*Answers to be tabulated separately.)

20. I would like to have a better understanding of the boundaries and lines of authority of the Village, Town, and school governments.