GULF SHORES, Ala. - Student pollsters with the University of South Alabama Polling Group, under the direction of Dr. Keith Nicholls, began randomly calling Gulf Shores residents on Monday and are expected to continue over the next week or so.

  The survey calls will be conducted Monday through Thursday, 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. until 400 qualified responses are received.

  Consisting of 50 questions, the city-sponsored effort, is intended to gauge citizen perceptions on the city’s quality of life and the importance of efforts to protect it, levels of interest in recreational opportunities, support of controlled growth policies, and overall satisfaction concerning city leaders.

  Dennis Hatfield, chairman of the city’s sustainable growth committee, has perhaps been the most outspoken supporter of the survey.

  “All of this is a result of a Town Hall meeting that was called late last year, the idea of conducting a survey came out of that meeting,” Hatfield said. “After thoughtful consideration we later decided as a committee that a phone survey would work best for our situation.

  “In one of our sustainable growth committee meetings we realized that the city’s strategic plan called on the city to measure complaints, that’s when we decided to conduct a survey to accomplish the task and ultimately decided on a comprehensive survey rather than just covering sustainable growth.”

  Councilman Robert Craft and committee participant said in a April 21 press release, “This is a real opportunity to provide city leaders with your vision for our community’s future.

  “It is our hope that bu contacting residents and asking unbiased questions, the survey results will give a better understanding of citizen concerns and their opinion of all areas of city government, current and for the future.”

   The cost of the survey, based on the number of questions and guaranteed qualified responses, is $12 for each response which totals $4,800.

  Councilwoman Carolyn Doughty noted during the council’s first consideration of the survey that the city would be eligible for a grant to cover the expense. “We’re able to cover those costs with a $5,000 economic development grant,” she said at the time.

  “I really think right now during this election year is a great time for this survey to know what the public thinks and according to Dr. Nichols this survey would like cost up to three times more for the same results if conducted through a private consultant,” Hatfield said at the same meeting.

  Hatfield believes the polling should wrap up in time for initial results to be presented at the Gulf Shores Adult Activity Center during the next Town Hall Meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 15 at 5:30 p.m.

  “We may not present the entire results of the survey, but we at least hope to have the preliminary results to give to those present at the Town Hall Meeting,” he said.