Survey Says: Results Revealed At Townhall Meeting In Neligh

The preliminary results from the Northeast Nebraska Economic Development District (NENEDD) survey were revealed at a townhall meeting at the Neligh City Council Chambers last Wednesday.

The early results indicated the top needs in the area, based on 166 survey participants. This is a small sampling, considering there are an estimated 198,000 people in the 16-county region, according to Thomas Higginbotham, Jr., NENEDD executive director. However, the survey will remain open through Wednesday, Oct. 31, Tina Engelbart, deputy director, said. Go to this link for the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CEDS2018

Survey results thus far showed that the largest percentage of participants in the region were from Antelope County—15.66 percent. Antelope was followed by Dodge at 13.86 percent, Colfax and Madison 10.24 percent, Pierce and Platte 8.43 percent, Cuming 7.23 percent, Knox 4.82 percent, Cedar 4.22 percent, Stanton, Thurston and Wayne 3.61 percent, Burt 2.41 percent, Nance 1.81 percent, Dixon 1.20 percent, and Boone .6 percent.

Over the next three to five years, the top five economic/community development priorities were listed as: 1. Attracting and retaining youth and young families; 2. Attracting new companies and/or workers; 3. Improving access and availability of affordable housing; 4. Improving public infrastructure (water, sewer, roads, etc.); and 5. Developing retail/service businesses.

About 30 percent of the participants were from the general public, 26.51 percent municipal government, 14.46 percent economic development and 11.45 percent business owner/operator.

Most of those surveyed had lived in their communities for more than a decade. The majority, 55.15 percent, had lived in their communities more than 10 years and 23.03 percent had lived their entire lives in their community.

Ages of the survey participants ranged from 79 to 19 and under. The biggest group, 30.12 percent, were between the ages of 50 to 59. The 60-69 age group made up 23.49 percent, 30-39 was 18.67 percent and the 40-49 group was 16.27 percent. The over 70 group and 29 and under groups were the smallest percentages.

Go to this link for all of the preliminary survey results: https://www.nenedd.org/Assets/pdflinks/CEDS/CEDS%20Survey%20Results%2010-23-18%20Cropped.pdf

Higginbotham said the NENEDD is in the beginning stages of creating the region’s 5-year Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS), so once the survey portion is complete, they’ll develop broad-based goals for the region and then action plans.

“Our goal is to have this done by April of next year,” he said. Sometime in April or May we will have a public comment period. Once we’re done with that, by June 30, that will be our plan for the region. We really want the plan to reflect the true needs and we can’t do that without the businesses and the citizens filling out the survey and telling us what their thoughts are.”