By Amye Anderson
UCBJ Managing Editor
PUTNAM COUNTY – After a month of collecting input from Putnam County residents and travelers of the county’s roadways, the Putnam County Joint Traffic Committee will now begin reviewing the results of a survey intended to gauge the interest and level of prioritization of some of the county’s state-involved road improvement projects.
Putnam County Executive Randy Porter, who spurred the formation of the traffic committee in 2017, said that more than 1,250 individuals responded to the survey, with the bulk of the respondents – 48 percent – living within Cookeville.
READ: Committee identifying potential road improvements
“I am very pleased with the number of responses,” Porter said in a statement released Monday. “My goal was 1,000 (responses) and we exceeded that.
“With today’s busy lifestyles we all have, I felt anything above 1 percent was a good sampling,” Porter told the UCBJ. “We got a good mixture (of input from) across the county.”
Approximately 30 percent of respondents live within Putnam County, but do not live inside any of the county’s municipalities.
Five percent of those who responded to the survey live within in Algood, while 7 percent are from Baxter, and 3 percent are Monterey residents.
Seven percent of survey responders are not even residents of Putnam County. That number, Porter said, is likely comprised of commuters who travel roadways within Putnam County and its municipalities regularly.
Porter says the responses provided by those living outside of Putnam County will also be factored among the collected survey data.
“Over the next two to three weeks, we will be analyzing the responses and the data from the survey,” Porter said.
Once the data is analyzed, the traffic committee will meet again to review the findings.
