The Lakeway City Council put out a community survey that was available to fill out from Sept. 25 to Oct. 9., and the results provided city leaders with a wealth of information on everything from citizen demographics to communication preferences. Mike LaRocca, chairman of the newly formed Public Engagement Advisory Committee, presented the results to City Council Monday, Oct. 15. The main goals of the survey included laying a foundation for open and frequent communications to Lakeway citizens, reinforcing to citizens that the city is listening and providing a free form of feedback to Council, LaRocca said. “Just to be clear, the survey did not address all of our current important topics,” LaRocca said, adding that the PEAC will address them in future surveys and community outreach efforts. The survey tallied 2,412 responses, which Cox said was six times the number of respondents on Lakeway’s last survey, and almost equal to the number of people who voted in the last election. Some of the main takeaways from the survey were that respondents wanted a plan for more timely and relevant communication streams across email and the city’s website, ways to further improve the city’s green spaces and consideration of more outdoor activities and gathering spaces for festivals, recreation and music. Following LaRocca’s presentation, council members discussed how to get even more responses on its next community outreach campaign. “If you look at the census data, there is probably a younger audience we didn’t capture—busier families, and we’ve got some ideas on how to continue to try to draw those people in,” LaRocca said. He added that a two-week response time for a survey could probably be bigger in order to get more respondents. Mayor Sandy Cox took the opportunity Monday to thank the PEAC, as well as Lakeway Communications Coordinator Devin Monk. “This was a lot of work,” Cox said. “People stood at Randall’s, went by H-E-B on 620, stood at football games, talked with people at different clubs and spent a lot of time trying to make sure this went out because we know we’re limited in how we reach with our normal channels.” Monk said that the overall outreach plan moving forward includes town halls and participation in community events. “I think we saw a really good response rate when we combined efforts in person,” Monk said. Events such as the National Night Out block parties and canvassing of grocery stores helped boost face-to-face interaction, which in turn combined with digital outreach efforts to bolster respondent numbers, he said. Monk said that as the outreach campaign ramps up, City Council and other Lakeway commissions and committees will be able to examine the results and make decisions that represent the people of Lakeway. “Those who took the survey—we want to thank them for taking it and tell them their voices have been heard,” Monk said.