The city of Lompoc will soon receive a big sum of money from the federal government and community members can play a role in how it gets spent.
The city sent out this survey so people can rank their priorities for how the $13.19 million from the American Rescue Plan Act should be spent. Projects range from public safety to improvements to city parks, but some community members are saying one thing that's missing is sending more help to local businesses.
"Honestly I have felt the city has not listened to its community too often, so I'm glad they're reaching out and allowing community input for this project," said Lompoc resident David Gray.
In the interactive survey, people can rank projects ranging from giving more than $500,000 to the police department to buy body cameras to spending more than one million dollars improving the grass fields at city parks.
This prompted a source of contention for some community members with one person writing on the city's Facebook page:
"Everything we're proposing right now is really benefiting the city - it's not benefiting a particular business or a particular individual; we're trying to look at it from a global picture," explained Lompoc City Manager, Jim Throop.
Throop says on top of the survey, they anticipate additional workshops where community members will be able to tell the city council in person where the money should go.
"This is for the public to get out there and let the council know what they think is a priority in the city. We don't get this opportunity very often so I hope everyone will get out there and show what they think is important for the city," said Throop.
The city says so far it's received about 400 responses to the survey. People have until Friday, May 14th to complete it.
It's anticipated the city will be reviewing the responses and getting feedback on its upcoming budget in a meeting tentatively set for May 20th.
