Commission will recommend poll on the Heritage Orchard

By Kara Chalmers

The Parks and Recreation Commission voted to recommend that $10,000 from the city's general fund be spent on a professional poll of Saratogans. The poll would ask them if they would consider using any part of the Heritage Orchard for other recreational uses. The City Council will discuss the issue at an upcoming meeting.

On May 1, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Nick Seroff gave fellow commissioners logistical information on taking an advisory vote of Saratogans on the orchard--an idea Seroff came up with in April. After some debate, the commission voted to recommend that, instead of an advisory vote on November's presidential election ballot, the City Council should fund a quantitative telephone survey of residents.

The commission also discussed using the tear-off card in the city's newsletter as an option. But while both the newsletter card and an advisory vote would be less expensive, the commission decided that a poll would be the most scientific choice and therefore, the best.

"This opinion poll would probably be the basis for the use of the orchard for the next five years or so," Seroff said later in an interview. "So we want it to be as accurate as possible. That is why we ended up recommending a professional company to do it."

A poll would survey a "statistically significant cross-sampling of the community," according to Seroff. It would take into account different ages, neighborhoods and family size, for example.

The commission agreed a survey should address three basic concepts: whether citizens would consider using the orchard at all; and, if so, how much they would preserve; and if not, would they pay for more property for new play fields or a gym.

Professional pollsters would word the questions so that the results would not be skewed, which is one more reason to conduct such a poll, according to Seroff.

"I don't want to skew the answers at all," he said. "I really want to know the opinion of the majority of Saratogans."

In April, Seroff proposed an advisory vote so that the commission would possess hard data on how citizens feel about the orchard.

Seroff thinks that since citizens, such as councilman Nick Streit, brought their ideas for using the orchard to the commission's attention, the commission needs to find out what percentage of residents would be opposed to using even a small part of the orchard.

Streit suggested in February building an indoor gym for the city on a parcel of the orchard. The city's Heritage Preservation Commission was opposed to the proposal.

According to Seroff, every time the commission discusses a proposed use, such as the gym, it is difficult to come to a conclusion since commissioners don't know the will of all Saratogans.

The commission voted 4-1-1 to recommend the proposal to the council. Commissioner Sheila Ioannou voted against it and chairwoman Judy Alberts abstained since she said she did not feel comfortable giving an absolute yes or no vote. She said that while she's not sure that it is the commission's place to make a recommendation, she doesn't believe that asking citizens how they feel would open the orchard up for development.

"I'm really torn," she said at the meeting on May 1. Alberts said that while part of her wants to find out how people feel about the orchard, at the same time she doesn't want to know.

She also said she expects this issue to be controversial since any talk of changing the orchard in the past has inflamed passions in Saratoga.

"I hope it's not seen as a controversial issue, but more of an informative issue," she said later in an interview.

Seroff said that all a poll would do is set the direction for the Parks and Recreation Commission's future planning, if a gym or a play fields idea comes up again.

"Everyone wants to preserve it if we can," he said of the orchard, but said he thinks it is important to establish the priority of the citizens regarding an orchard versus the need for recreational facilities in the city.

"Personally, I think that we have needs in Saratoga and I do think that as an orchard, it is not very well utilized," Seroff said. He suggests that the city could make the orchard more usable by perhaps adding benches, more walking trails and proper irrigation, so people can walk through it all during the year, not just in the spring.

"If we don't value the orchard, than let's do something we do value," he said. Seroff, who was appointed to the commission in December, suggested the Heritage Orchard as a possible site for play fields in 1998, as a resident.

Heritage Preservation Commissioner Robert Peepari, who attended the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting, does not support using the orchard in any way other than as an orchard. He does not think a poll is a good idea.

"I don't think 10 percent would really be representative of the majority of Saratoga residents, so I wouldn't put a real value on that," he said in a telephone interview. "The orchard needs a little work on it. Ten thousand dollars could be better spent by putting it towards maintenance of the orchard." He said he would guess his fellow commissioners would feel the same way, although they have not yet had a meeting to discuss the poll.

Seroff counters that a poll could be a mechanism to save the orchard from future development.

"If the feelings of the Heritage Commission actually represent the feelings of the majority of Saratogans, then the survey will indeed preserve the orchard," he said.

Commissioner Sandra Dodge in April opposed an advisory vote since she said it would be a call to action for people who want to change the orchard. She said that a professional poll is a good idea. The commission needs to find out what the people want.

The City Council should hear the recommendation on May 17, or possibly at a June meeting.

In April, Alberts directed Seroff to find out the cost and deadline for an advisory vote, and to come up with suggested wording. Seroff looked into costs and found that the deadline for the November ballot is Aug. 11 and that each question would cost about $2,500.

The polling firm Seroff contacted to get the $10,000 figure, Nichols Research, suggested that a poll of 10 percent of Saratoga's population, taking demographics into account, would be sufficient to gauge the will of the people. The firm said that its fee was middle of the road, Seroff said. He first heard of Nichols when the firm contacted him to participate in a radio station survey in the past. He said he found them extremely professional.

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