At Monday's City Council meeting, Linda Daugherty, right, of the University of Tennessee, presents survey results that suggest supporters of a new Oak Ridge Senior Center could outnumber opponents. Also pictured are Council members Charlie Hensley, left, and David Mosby.
Building a new Oak Ridge senior center has been hotly debated for more than a decade, and opinions about replacing the current center on Emory Valley Road remain divided.
Still, a recent survey by the University of Tennessee suggested supporters of a new center could outnumber opponents.
Almost half of those who responded to the survey, or 49 percent of respondents, said they either somewhat strongly or strongly support building a new center. That’s more than double the 21.2 percent who said they are somewhat or strongly opposed.
Meanwhile, a high percentage or respondents, or roughly 30 percent, said they were unsure or neutral about building the new center.
Respondents under 40 were the least likely to voice strong opposition. Conversely, the strongest opposition came from those who voted in the last election, said Linda M. Daugherty, assistant director of the UT Center for Applied Research and Evaluation.
Daugherty presented the survey findings in a needs assessment report at an Oak Ridge City Council meeting on Monday.
Her report said those who support a new senior center recognize there are many seniors in Oak Ridge, and they believe the current center is not adequate. Overall, about 1 in 3 respondents said seniors deserve a new center.
However, those who oppose a new center cited fiscal concerns and their belief that the current facility is adequate. Some said the money should be spent elsewhere, including on youth and education.
Regardless of their support, survey participants were asked which site they would prefer if a new senior center is built. “Overall, the location of the current center on Emory Valley Road is the most popular site, but a separate facility next to the Civic Center is a very close second,” Daugherty’s report said.
The telephone survey of 600 Oak Ridge residents in November 2011 had a margin of error of about 4 percent.
Devrin Kuipers says
600 residents were surveyed, approximately 2.6% of the Oak Ridge 22,877 voting age population (2010 census). While 600 were surveyed, no number was given for how many actually responded. Of those that responded, almost half support building a new senior center. In essence, all we know is that the survey can predict ~1% of the voting age population actually support a senior center. My favorite part in the article “Conversely, the strongest opposition came from those who voted in the last election.” Now that is a statement. The voters do not support it. Surveys are so scientific……
John Huotari says
Devrin,
Here’s what the needs assessment report says about the response rate: “The cooperation rate for this survey was 74.1% and the response rate was 38.9% utilizing the Response Rate 4 calculations provided by the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).” I think Linda Daugherty explained the difference between the cooperation rate and response rate during last night’s City Council meeting, but I was taking pictures at the time and missed it. Sorry.
Regarding voters, as I wrote in the story, the survey said those under 40 were the least likely to voice strong opposition to building a new senior center, and those who expressed the strongest opposition were those who voted in the last election. Here’s more information from Daugherty’s report: “This distinction between those who vote and those who do not vote is also a function of age. Those respondents who are 40 and over are considerably more likely to vote than those under 40.”
Thank you,
John
John Huotari says
I added a link to the survey in the second paragraph of the story.
Devrin Kuipers says
Thanks John! Check out Page 46 (http://www.aapor.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Standard_Definitions2&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=3156). What I garner from the response rate is that they didn’t have enough real responses to want to report Response Rate 1, which is an actual division of those that completed the survey divided by the target. They used an estimate of the unknown eligible as eligible and then also included partial but incomplete contacts. Using the 38.9% number means that only 233.4 individuals were contacted. The .4 is attributable to the estimate and RR4. It’s not a great response rate.
The response rate is probably fairly close to our voter turnout rate for a city election, perhaps higher. This is indeed sad. Even with their estimated numbers, it looks like only 167 supported a new senior center, which is 0.73% of the eligible voters.
John Huotari says
I think the turnout for a city election has actually been considerably lower than 40 percent, possibly closer to 20 percent. This survey did make me wonder what the majority of voters would say if construction of a new senior center were ever put to a vote.
Peggy Tiner says
It seems to be that Oak Ridge City Council is much more likely to speak publicly about projects that they are not really interested in than about the ones they plan to get done. If they speak publicly there will always be conflicting opinions so it can be postponed indefinitely. If Council really wants something done they will go ahead with it until someone gets enough support to force a referendum.