Survey results help Whitehall leaders gauge community attitudes

The Columbus Dispatch – January 12, 2021

In a recent survey, residents gave Whitehall high marks for its police services and parks-and-recreation opportunities and said they believe it is a welcoming community.

But just more than half (51%) said they believe officials are good at handling city finances.

Those positions were recorded in the 2020 Whitehall Community Attitudes Survey, in which respondents were either residents or parents of children enrolled in Whitehall City Schools.

The city of Whitehall’s 2020 Community Attitudes Survey showed that residents give high marks to city services but would like to see more affordable housing.

Administered by Saperstein Associates of Columbus, the survey questioned 355 people from a broad swath of races, ages and geographic regions of the city.

“The city goes to great lengths to ensure that each Community Attitudes Survey is a representative and statistically significant snapshot of the Whitehall community,” said Megan Meyer, community-affairs manager for the city. “We work with Saperstein Associates, a professional polling firm, to design, field and analyze the survey on our behalf to eliminate response bias and to ensure that the demographics of the survey sample match the diverse demographic makeup of our community members.”

The survey was conducted by phone from Sept. 9 to Oct. 7, with results presented Dec. 1 to Whitehall City Council.