BUCKHANNON – The Upshur County Development Authority has sent out a survey to Upshur County businesses in hopes that the feedback it generates will assist the economic develop agency in drafting a new five-year strategic plan.

Upshur County Development Authority Executive Director Jennifer Bostian attended the Dec. 9 Upshur County Commission meeting to get the word out about the survey and encourage business owners to submit their copy.

“The Upshur County Development Authority is going into a strategic planning process for our five-year strategic plan, and we’re going to complete that in the early part of next year,” Bostian said. “It’s important that we have input from the business community about how the business climate is and what the quality of life is like because the UCDA does most of its work with the business community, and we need to know how they think things are going so we can prioritize what our goals and objectives are.”

The plan will develop a set of goals to accomplish in the next five years.

“The board of directors and a group of stakeholders will develop a vision for the Upshur County Development Authority,” Bostian said. “It will help us decide what we want to accomplish in five years and lay out our goals and objectives on how to meet that vision — that’s pretty much what it is.”

The survey starts out with a list of questions identifying the individual filling out the survey and which business they represent.

“It will ask if you’re the business owner, if you’re the manager of the business, and if you’re located here in Upshur County — that kind of information – so we know who’s filling out the survey,” Bostian said. “There are questions on how they feel the economy is doing here, if there’s anything special they believe Upshur County is doing very well, or if there’s things they feel we need to focus on.”

Other questions pertain to what the individual knows about the UCDA’s mission and services, if the survey-taker believes the UCDA needs to communicate better with businesses, and whether they need to inform businesses about their offerings more frequently. The survey period began Tuesday, Dec. 7 and will run through Wednesday, Dec. 29.

“We’ll be sending out reminders, and it went to almost 1,200 businesses,” Bostian said. “We went to the list of all the businesses that are registered in Upshur County, and the Chamber’s been good enough to send it out to all their members. I’ll announce it to the Create Buckhannon group [later today].”

Bostian said after the survey period is over, she will report the UCDA’s findings to the Upshur County Commission and City of Buckhannon. The survey can be found here.