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Independent survey shows split over Enders building; presenters report social‑media swing
Summary
An independent survey presented to the Soda Springs council found respondents nearly split between selling and keeping the Enders building; presenter said a Facebook post on Aug. 4 corresponded with a shift toward selling, and staff clarified the city holds a photographic/video inventory but not original-owner records for most museum items.
Council heard results of an independent community survey about the Enders building and received questions about survey methods, timing and items stored in the building.
Debbie DuMont, who said she and Joanne conducted the survey independently of the council, described methodology using SurveyPlanet with IP tracking and one response per device. DuMont said the survey collected 217 responses (216 reported as residing in Soda Springs) and provided age and residency breakdowns. She told the council that prior to Aug. 4 the majority of respondents wanted the city to keep the building leased to vendors; after a Facebook post by "DC Terry Jones" on Aug. 4, the distribution of responses swung and a majority favored selling the building. DuMont offered to provide timestamped Excel data so councilmembers could inspect the dates of responses.
On specific preferences, DuMont reported that about half of all respondents favored selling Enders, 35.5% favored keeping and continuing to lease it, and roughly 11% favored converting part of the building to city hall. Of respondents, roughly 65.5% said they reside within city limits; about 110 of 217 respondents favored selling while 72 favored keeping and leasing, with 29 preferring conversion to city hall.
Council also questioned how museum items in Enders would be handled if the building were sold. Staff clarified the city maintains a written and photographic/video inventory of items but does not have documentation attributing most items to original donors; staff said the city considers items city property absent proof of prior ownership. Survey respondents expressed a preference for protecting historical integrity: about 68% said they would sell the building only if historical integrity were protected, and 85% selected donating museum items to the Caribou Historical Society as the preferred outcome if the building were sold.
Several councilmembers requested access to the underlying survey data to review the asserted timing and potential influence of the Facebook post before making any policy decisions. DuMont said minor grammatical edits were made to the survey after initial publication but insisted edits did not change the scope of questions.
Next steps: council agreed to review the survey data provided by the presenters and consider those findings when discussing the Enders building in future agenda items.
