The North Bend Eagle

 

Community priorities laid out

by Nathan Arneal
Published 12/18/24

The results of a community survey were discussed at a town hall meeting at the North Bend Public Library Monday.
The survey was conducted by the Purcell Initiative earlier this fall in conjunction with the city of North Bend and the Northeast Nebraska Development District.

Representatives of NENEDD tabulated the results and reviewed the findings at the meeting, which was attended by about 30 people.
Asked to rate basic services in North Bend from 1 to 5 with five being best, the lowest three services were law enforcement (2.44 weighted average), water/wastewater infrastructure (1.77) and water quality (1.53).

For greatest needs to address (1-5, 5 being the greatest need), the top three needs were safe drinking water (4.59), child care facilities (4.28) and maintaining quality schools (4.24).

The highest priorities came back as (1-5 with 5 the highest priority) child care facilities (4.28), flood control (4.15) and business recruitment, retainment and expansion (3.99).

Regarding housing, the greatest problems are (1-5, 5 a major problem) poor, dilapidated housing (3.97), adequate new construction of affordable homes (3.83) and adequate existing affordable homes for sale (3.81).

As far as public facilities, the public library rated the highest, averaging between 4 and 5 in 15 of the 16 factores surveyed. The city auditorium was the lowest between 2 and 3 on all prompts.

Eighty-six percent of respondants would like to see the city pursue downtown revitalization. 90% support using a portion of city sales tax on economic develeopment through LB840.

Complete results of the survey can be found here (PDF). The answers highlighted in yellow are the top three (or bottom three, depending on the wording of the question) answers.

 

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