Results of Mosquito Lake Greenway survey released

Staff report

CORTLAND

The Mosquito Lake Greenway Project’s Community Survey showed more than half (61 percent) of respondents had heard of the greenway project, and most (85 percent) felt either strongly or somewhat strongly that the Cortland, Bazetta and Mecca Township communities share a sense of community.

Thirty-three percent strongly agreed there is a sense of community, 52 percent said they somewhat agree.

The survey ran from Oct. 12 to Nov. 12 and received 517 responses. The project proposes to encircle the southern part of Mosquito Lake in Cortland, Bazetta and Mecca with a greenway to be used by pedestrians and bicyclists. Plans include connecting to the Western Reserve Greenway a few miles to the west.

“It was a simple survey with a total of only nine questions,” said Michael Swiatkwich, founder and chairman of the Mosquito Lake Greenway Project. “It was our attempt to establish some kind of baseline regarding a sense of community in the Mosquito Lake communities of Cortland, Bazetta Township and Mecca Township and awareness of our project,” he added.

Of the respondents, 232 or 48 percent were from Cortland, 101 or 21 percent from Bazetta Township and 41 or 8.5 percent were from Mecca Township. There were 108 Trumbull County residents other than the Mosquito Lake communities, or 22.4 percent of respondents, and 35 people responded who live outside of the Mahoning Valley but are former residents or familiar with it.

“We felt that it’s not only important how we see ourselves but how others see us, so we opened it up a bit for a slightly larger sampling,” said Swiatkwich.

“We have our work cut out for us,” said Swiatkwich. “In the future when we re-survey, we need to show an increase in awareness of our project and an increase in the people who “strongly agree” or “agree somewhat” in our sense of community.