Ferris State students report broad support in Big Rapids for preserving Old Jail; recommend small tax increase and follow-up interviews

Ferris State University students presented the results of a community survey to the Big Rapids City Commission on Dec. 1, reporting 846 completed responses and widespread support for preserving the city’s Old Jail. Student researchers said respondents viewed historic buildings as important to the community and favored preservation over demolition.

"Today, we will be going over the community perceptions of the Big Rapids Old Jail," student presenter Josie said during the introduction to the research findings. The team said the survey period ran Oct. 20 through Nov. 15 and combined in-person and online responses gathered at local businesses, Ferris State locations and via a water-bill mailer and social media promotion.

The students reported demographic results showing the largest respondent group was ages 31–54 and that 71% of respondents had lived in the area for 10 or more years. On attitudes: nearly 90% of respondents said historic buildings such as the Old Jail are important to the community; about 59% said they would support a small property tax increase to maintain or redevelop the structure; roughly 86% opposed tearing it down. Student Sam summarized the scale of the fieldwork: "We received 846 completed paper and digital surveys," noting that figure exceeded the team’s target of 365 responses.

The research team presented statistical tests linking support for funding and ownership preferences to resident characteristics. Student Addison said long‑term residents (10+ years) showed higher support for a property tax increase and that tests found statistically significant differences by gender, age and household income (the team reported p-values: 0.04 and 0.001 on several tests). Student Shane presented Pearson correlation and linear regression results showing moderate-to-strong relationships between perceived importance of the facility and willingness to fund preservation.

The presentation concluded with recommendations: (1) consider a small property tax increase to support redevelopment, (2) use targeted communications emphasizing the building’s historic character to build support for public ownership and funding, (3) increase community engagement and visibility of the Old Jail as a city-owned asset, and (4) move to a phase‑2 qualitative study (in-depth interviews) to gather richer input. "So our first recommendation is a small property tax increase to support the redevelopment of the Old Jail," the student team stated.

City commissioners and members of the Old Jail Committee praised the students’ work and asked for a copy of the presentation. Commissioners indicated they expect a fuller written report in January and said the Old Jail Committee will reconvene once that full report is available to consider next steps and design options. The students and committee members emphasized that the survey addressed residents’ preferences and that further qualitative work would be needed to identify specific use cases and operational plans.

A formal committee report and the student team’s full dataset are expected to be provided to the commission in January; the Old Jail Committee will schedule a follow-up meeting when the commission has the complete materials.