Is Suffolk a safe place to live?

Is it a good place to hunt for a job?

How helpful did you find the city brochure recently delivered to your mailbox?

Those are just a few of the questions that 300 city residents will be asked during a telephone poll over the next two weeks.

For the second consecutive year, the city has contracted with Continental Research, a Norfolk marketing firm, to conduct a citizen satisfaction survey, said Dennis Craff, a city spokesman. He expects to receive a draft of the survey results by Aug. 1.

Continental will be calling residents – who are randomly selected by computer from across the city – on Sunday through Thursday evenings, he said. The survey should take about 15 minutes.

&uot;This is an indicator that will let us see whether we are improving in specific areas,&uot; Craff said.

The $8,350 survey is mostly a duplicate of the one done last year, Craff said.

&uot;That was the year we tried to create the baseline,&uot; said Craff, during a recent Suffolk City Council meeting. &uot;We were looking for some important numbers…on community reaction to services of the city and strengths and weaknesses.&uot;

Repeating it this year will be useful in gauging progress on changes made in response to the first survey, he added.

Also, the growing number of people moving into the city each year makes it important the survey is done on a fairly regular basis, he said.

The survey will reflect the city’s changing demographics and provide city leaders with information that will be useful in mapping out the city’s future, Craff said.

allison.williams@suffolknewsherald.com