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City intern presents 2026 resident survey: safety rated high but residents say businesses, roads lag
Summary
An intern presented results from 253 resident responses showing 73.12% of respondents feel safe in Perry, while nearly 60% say the city lacks desired businesses; roads and cost of living were recurring concerns. Councilors discussed follow-up focus work and communication plans.
Kaylee, a city management intern, presented the City of Perry’s 2026 resident opinion survey to the council on July 13, reporting 253 completed responses compared with 325 in 2025.
The survey showed a plurality of residents view Perry positively on several services: "73.12 of citizens agree that they felt safe within Perry," Kaylee reported, and parks, the library and fire services received relatively high approval ratings. But a majority of respondents signaled dissatisfaction with local business offerings: 59.68% "disagreed" that Perry has the types of businesses residents want, and many respondents said they travel out of town multiple times per week to shop.
Why it matters: Councilmembers said the results give officials a roadmap for near-term priorities — business attraction, street maintenance and clearer public communications. Kaylee recommended refining question wording in future surveys and pursuing targeted follow-ups such as focus groups or quarterly mini-surveys to drill into drivers of perceived problems.
Council reaction and next steps: Councilmembers praised the utility crews and staff who supported storm response and asked staff to return with options for deeper outreach and possible task forces to pursue top issues. City management noted the survey’s sample size is smaller than last year and recommended widening outreach to raise future response counts.
Key details and quotes from the presentation - Sample sizes: 253 respondents in 2026 vs. 325 in 2025. - Businesses: 59.68% of respondents said Perry does not have the types of businesses they want; staff flagged grocery availability as a recurring comment. - Safety: 73.12% of respondents agreed they feel safe in Perry. - App and communications: About 43% of respondents were aware of the city app; staff discussed adding outage-reporting features to encourage adoption.
The council asked staff to develop targeted follow-up methods and consider communications strategies that clarify what the city controls (services, programming) versus private-market outcomes (retail recruitment). The presentation concluded with staff offering the full dataset and the intern’s contact information for follow-up questions.
