Though the results of the Urban Deer Resident Survey won't be available until the May 12 council meeting, there were a good number of respondents for the City of Cranbrook survey which intends to gauge public opinion on urban deer control.
The grand total for survey responses submitted was 1628, both online and in paper form at city hall. Of those, 1,470 were online responses and 158 were hard copies, which required identification and a Cranbrook address to obtain.
At the April 7 council meeting, Mayor Wayne Stetski also noted that the City was taking precautions to avoid duplicate submissions and surveys submitted by non-residents online.
"There were several enquiries around, 'How do we make sure that there aren't multiple applications done, particularly over the computer?'" Stetski explained. "How do we make sure there aren't people outside of Cranbrook that are filling out the survey and sending it in?"
He said that is the role of the city's information technologies department, which he said was now sifting through the surveys to make sure that there is only one survey per household and to make sure the surveys that the city looks at are from Cranbrook residents only. He said the department is looking for submissions from the same computer IP address or from outside of the city.
The survey was available for the public to complete from Monday, March 10 to Friday, March 28.
The 17 question survey asked resident for input on urban deer and possible future population management strategies. It was intended for residents to assess the effectiveness of the current deer management program and provide council with input on what its future direction should be.
The last time the city conducted a public survey on urban deer was September 2010.