(Spirit Lake)– How to go about conducting a survey on what to do about the courthouse was the topic of a meeting Wednesday in Spirit Lake.
Kathleen Larson of the Iowa State University Extension Service’s Sociology Department would oversee the surveying process. She hopes to have atleast one public meeting to gather public input on the various issues. Given the extreme controversy of the matter, Larson is confident she’d be able to come up with a survey worded in such a way so as not to be biased.
Whether or not the public meeting will actually be held is another story. The board of supervisors directed Larson to put together more detailed cost estimates on her services before they decide whether or not to continue with the process. Larson estimated a survey would cost about ten dollars per person. She recommends a random sampling in part to keep the cost down. Since the county has roughly 12-thousand voters, sending a survey to every one of them would cost roughly 120-thousand dollars.
