Guest Spot: Understanding the community

How can you serve a community if you don’t fully understand who they are and what they want? And how do you know if what you’re planning will be relevant? These were questions the Cutchogue Civic Association asked itself at the beginning of the summer, and what prompted us to reach out to our members, friends and neighbors with an online survey. Since our mission is to inform and educate residents about issues of community interest and concern, we spent a normally quiet summer determining what those concerns were, and along the way, we learned a little bit about our members and our neighbors.

Four-fifths of respondents identified as year-round residents, but it turns out our reach extends beyond Cutchogue to neighboring hamlets, and to the virtual community who stream meetings.

The 75% survey response rate was surprising, but the results weren’t. Classic North Fork issues like land use, development, and protection of the environment were overwhelmingly cited as topics of interest. The new Southold zoning plan may have generated the large interest in governmental regulations and maritime concerns, but instead of guessing why, we refined these broad categories by examining these responses during our August social. We’ll continue to ask members and neighborsduring our informational meetings.

We learned that dark skies, climate change and sea level rise were our community’s primary environmental concerns, and affordable housing and preservation rights were identified as specific land use issues. Many individuals offered other good suggestions, and we suspect they were not alone in their concerns. Ultimately, all the survey information will be used to guide us as we develop a program for the upcoming year. We’ll resume our educational series Thursday, Sept. 25, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Peconic Community School by hearing from Tom Wickham and other Cutchogue farmers and businesses about how climate change is impacting them.

The Cutchogue Civic Association is not affiliated with and does not endorse a specific party, candidate or platform. We’re merely trying to inform the community and help them learn more about the issues of the moment. Much as an informed public drives political engagement and makes for a more effective government, we hope that an informed civic association is more effective and leads to better community engagement.

Mr. Parlini, a member of the Cutchogue Civic Association, is among those who spearheaded its recent survey effort.