Ames leaders hope 500 randomly selected residents will be able to help them plan for the future of the community.

Clare Bills, public relations officer for Ames, said city staff members sent 500 surveys to Ames residents, including ISU students, at the end of February. The city has been polling residents for the past 20 years and uses the gathered information to construct the city budget for the following year.

Bills said the scientific survey works well for the council and staff to think about capital improvement project support for a number of years.

“We use it to begin crafting the budget for next year and to try to find out which long-term projects have support,” Bills said.

Bills said the council and staff look at trends that may become evident over a period of time.

“Two years ago the survey was constructed to determine the amount of public support for an aquatic facility, and we found that there wasn’t a lot of support,” Bills said. “So the council decided not to pursue a bond for that project.

“This year we’ve broken down that issue into three questions about the facility. We’re asking about an indoor aquatic facility, an outdoor aquatic facility and a gymnasium.”

The staff has added questions this year about amounts spent on specific items to get a better idea about the needs of the community.

The survey now asks residents to determine whether they want the spending on items to increase, decrease or stay the same.

Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco said the survey is a good management tool.

“It gives a good indication of what projects citizens think are important,” he said.

Tedesco said the new spending questions “will provide better guidance to council and staff as to what projects should be enhanced and which ones should be put on the back burner.”

He also said the survey directs the city to the residents’ main interests.

Bills said participants for the survey are selected by systematic random sampling.

“This is a scientific survey and we have an exact formula we use to get an accurate representation of the population,” Bills said.

An answer sheet and a return envelope accompany the questionnaires, which are due to City Hall by 5 p.m. April 5.

Those who complete and return a survey will be eligible for drawing for one of four $25 gift certificates for the Ames restaurant of their choice.

Winners will be announced in April. In order to keep the anonymous nature of the survey, tickets used for the drawing are separated from the returned answer sheets.