In February of 2021 we conducted a survey of the community to better understand the people served by the Echo Lake Community Group. We wanted to know more about the character of the community and how the Community Group could address concerns, lifestyle, and local improvements. The following are the results of that survey. The Board of Directors has established the goals for 2021 largely based on these results. We would like to thank everyone that responded to the survey, your voice will make a difference.

Summary

We had 97 people responding to the survey. Because we posed several questions with an essay response, we received a depth of information unobtainable from fixed response questions. This richness has provided more insight into the pulse of what is on people’s minds.

There are some responses relative to 2020 projects and discussions.

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the responses of this survey. While this is to be expected, it sheds some light on how people feel about our community and their relationship with the community, during a mild disaster. This type of response may be relative to future disaster responses.

When reviewing the following data, one can notice the heightened awareness and concern in a few areas.

· Traffic issues (Many issues, significant concern & call to action)

· Walking Safely (As a pedestrian, walk-in-the-woods, riding bike)

· Community Events (Meeting neighbors, getting out & local social activities)

· Defining ‘Rural Living’ (Complicated, impactful, divisive & very personal)

· Change/Development

Among these there are two strong themes. Local traffic issues and the desire to have Community events. Traffic issues and Walking safely are intertwined, however in this summary I wanted to keep them separate to indicate the extent of each in the responses.

At the core of many comments lives the definition of ‘Rural living’. It is clearly not the same for everyone. The definition of why we live in the area seems to be quite diverse. In fact, the differences are large enough that change required to address common concerns will be hampered by this diverse definition. The definition of an issue as well as the potential corrective action is significantly impacted by individual definitions of the ‘rural lifestyle’.

It was obvious, too, that the concept of our ability to affect change exceeds our authority to do so. As a community in unincorporated Snohomish County, we have no legal or political ability to directly impact community resources. We do have the ability to interact, change and improve our community through collective teamwork, local resources, and personal involvement. Through the Echo Lake Community Group, we can influence county resources to impact changes. The survey indicated several areas where change was desired, however, was well beyond the scope of this community unless we incorporated as a town. Some concerns could be effectively managed if the Community Group were communicating with a larger segment of the population. We are working hard to reach more households to multiply our ability to influence governmental changes/protections.

I was encouraged to see the willingness of people to get involved, personally and financially to make the community a better place. With the ‘willingness’ of volunteers to help take action, this year will be exciting and take some of the burden off leadership.

The following is a summary of the 2021 survey. This data will guide us as we move forward in the coming years. It is our intent to follow-up this survey with at least one each year to assure our efforts are meeting the expectations of the community.

Wayne Connell
Vice President, ELLCG

These are some examples of the information in the following report.