A survey about the Hanley Field Airport has drawn strong criticism from the community, with multiple comments made at the Alger County Commission meeting on Monday, Jan. 9.
But according to officials at CUPPAD, the group writing the survey, it shouldn’t have reached the public already.
“This really took a life of its own. I couldn’t have envisioned it would go out the way it did, so quickly,” CUPPAD Executive Director Dotty LaJoye said.
No members of CUPPAD were at the meeting. None of the former commissioners on the airport committee were there either, as they lost the November 2022 election. Questions were then directed to county staff, but they said they were only aware of the survey after complaints were made to the county.
“I’m not too happy with CUPPAD, that they screwed this up like this,” Alger County Commissioner Mick Rondeau said. “Not everyone has a damn computer. Not everyone is going to go online to do it. We said we wanted the mailed survey and I still expect that.”
According to LaJoye, CUPPAD was still looking for a reliable printer that could take the job on Monday, the same day of the county commission meeting. Mailing the sur-CUPPAD veys was a major point for the county to make sure that people without computers could receive the survey.
“This really took a life of its own. I couldn’t have envisioned it would go out the way it did, so quickly,” CUPPAD Executive Director Dotty LaJoye said.
LaJoye agreed with commissioners, saying that mailing results in a greater selection of responses from the public.
“On social media, you see people with the same answers because they share it with their friends. To support everyone and shoot for more equitable distribution, you can go through mail and hit the post o e boxes, which is important in rural communities,” she said.
Also, because the survey was not mailed, the QR code did not work for everyone. People reported that they displayed the code on one mobile device so they could scan it with a dierent one.
The survey itself was also critiqued by the public. The online version allows questions with square boxes the opportunity to select as many options as possible while questions with circles are only allowed to be clicked once. The option to allow multiple answers is a function of the survey software. However, survey takers could select both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to whether the airport should have any upgrades at all while suggested improvements were limited to just one option.
Other problems in phrasing like “primary reasons”, limiting payment options to either seeking grants or a county-wide millage and mentioning “small jets” without further clarification on what type of airplanes would benefit from an upgrade.
There are multiple opportunities for a write-in option, allowing survey takers the chance to give direct input on the matter.
“Questions were designed to be not in depth, but provide original thoughts and they have,” LaJoye said.
She also said that data can be separated to show the answers from the ones returned through mail and the ones completed online to CUPPAD would not disclose how the survey was leaked. While CUPPAD knows who received a copy, there would be no way to guarantee that they were the ones who shared or gave the survey to the ones who shared on social media. LaJoye also said Tuesday that she would be contacting Alger County sta that were surprised by the survey and would be willing to come to a commission meeting to address any further questions regarding the incident.
Surveys were due by February 1, but that date will potentially be moved based on mailing schedule.
