Reluctance to answer survey hurts improvement efforts

While it is wise to guard against these kinds of personal invasions, too much fear can be just as crippling as any crime, especially when that feeling of apprehension can rob a community of much-needed resources.

That seems to be the case in the Kingsland subdivision of Lakeside Heights along FM 2545, where at least 18 residents have told survey takers armed with nothing more threatening than a questionnaire to take a hike.

That seems like an odd way to treat the people who are trying to help them out.

Last month the Kingsland Water Supply Corp. sent personnel to conduct a door-to-door survey in order to receive a state grant that would allow them to extend more resources to the neighborhood.

KWSC recently was awarded a grant of $250,000 from the Office of Rural Community Affairs, part of which will pay for the extension of about 6,500 feet of 6-inch water line to Indian Trail near RR 3404. 

The corporation wants another portion of the grant to pay for a water-line extension to Lakeside Heights, Foster said. 

KWSC needs every household in the area to answer the survey because it is required by ORCA if the grant is to be approved. 

“We need 100 percent participation,” General Manager Earl Foster told The Daily Tribune.

That is not what they got. 

Eighteen residents so far in Lakeside Heights have refused to answer the questions — mainly dealing with finances — requested by the survey and provide the data necessary to support the extension. The reluctance is understandable but misplaced.

In addition to being wary of scams and identity theft, people are also just plain tired of telemarketers, pollsters, opinion surveys, sales gimmicks and all the other evaluations that come with a culture that constantly looks at itself to increase sales and promotions.

Others are leery of what’s occurring on the national stage post-Sept. 11, 2001, in which federal laws seem to give the government broad powers to monitor Americans under the guise of national security.

People are just plain tired of being mentally poked and prodded in this information age of ours, which at times seems too invasive. And finally, then there are those folks who just plain think it’s nobody’s business what their income status is.

Yet this survey is not about keeping tabs on anyone. This issue is about helping people, and the longer some neighbors don’t want to participate, the longer they will hold up aid for their fellow residents.

All of the questions on the survey involve straightforward yes or no responses to inquiries involving economic status.

The answers are kept confidential. 

They don’t go any further than the water-supply corporation, but it is something KWSC needs to have to have to make the ORCA grant work. 

ORCA provides grants for communities that otherwise could lose valuable services. The community affairs agency, created in 2002 to assist rural communities, has awarded 1,232 grants totaling $345 million. Federal funding makes up about 90 percent of ORCA’s revenue.

The Kingsland area also is not incorporated, does not have a municipal government and does not collect city sales-tax revenue, which normally would be used to help fund improvements.

But answering the survey is one way to get help.

The survey may also be needed for future grant applications to the Texas Small Towns Environmental Program.

There is nothing sinister about this, or nothing Orwellian. 

For months, KWSC has been trying to extend water services to that part of Kingsland in order to improve residents’ lives and to ensure they receive adequate resources for themselves and the children of the area. 

It is a long process and requires the cooperation of all.