Montgomery survey shows high satisfaction with safety, points to business attraction, roads and water quality as priorities

The Village of Montgomery board on Sept. 8 heard a 39-minute presentation of a community survey conducted by Northern Illinois University’s Center for Governmental Studies that found broad resident satisfaction with the village and identified business attraction, street maintenance and water quality as the top areas for attention.

Christina, a village staff member who introduced the item, said the village “believes this is the first survey of its kind conducted in the Village of Montgomery.” Doctor Mindy Schneiderman, assistant director of NIU’s Center for Governmental Studies, presented the methods and results, saying, “The purpose of the survey was to determine residents' opinions of living in the village, and the village provider services.”

NIU used a multimode approach: an online invitation (January 13, 2025) with up to six reminder emails, a mailed questionnaire for nonresponders and reminder telephone calls. The sample began with 2,000 randomly selected households; the team received 506 completed surveys and reported a margin of sampling error of about ±4.2 percentage points. NIU said responses were weighted to 2023 American Community Survey estimates to better represent the village population.

Key findings presented by NIU included: 75% of respondents rated Montgomery as an excellent or good place to live (15% excellent, 60% good); 96.1% reported feeling very or somewhat safe in the village (53.1% very safe); and strong civic attachment, with 93.8% saying their household thinks of Montgomery as home and 90.1% saying they are proud of the village. Schneiderman highlighted statistically significant differences by ethnicity: Hispanic respondents reported higher levels of pride (98.8%) and belonging (97.6%) than non-Hispanic respondents (87.4% and 81.3%, respectively).

When asked open-ended questions about priorities for the next five years, respondents most often cited business attraction/economic development (about 21%), infrastructure—particularly roads and street maintenance—and water quality (roughly 10%). An importance–satisfaction analysis NIU presented placed water quality, neighborhood street maintenance and repair, business attraction/retention, yard waste pickup, planning and zoning/property maintenance regulation, and green initiatives in an “improvement opportunity” quadrant (high importance, lower satisfaction). Services with high importance and high satisfaction included police/public safety, water and sewer maintenance, garbage and recycling, and stormwater management.

The survey also covered communications. Utility bills, the village newsletter, the village website and Facebook were the most common ways respondents said they currently get information; the newsletter and email were reported as particularly useful. NIU noted low awareness or usage of the village mobile app: a majority marked the app as “not applicable,” and the app had substantially lower reported usefulness than other channels. NIU said newer residents (fewer than five years in the village) were more likely to report they are not getting information (about 20% compared with 7.8% overall).

NIU described the questionnaire as 48 items long, translated into Spanish by an outside firm, and noted the Center’s follow-up phone calls included Spanish-speaking students and the option to complete the survey by phone for respondents with reading difficulties. The survey closed May 1, 2025.

Village staff told trustees that full survey results were provided in the meeting packet; staff and department heads will use the findings to align the village’s five-year strategic plan and strategic objectives, including economic development and infrastructure investment.