JAY — The town of Jay is accepting public input through a community-wide survey that will be available online until Nov. 22.

The survey is available at planjay.com. Residents from all of the communities within the town of Jay — AuSable Forks, Jay, Upper Jay and the AuSable Acres subdivision — are encouraged to participate.

This is one of several opportunities for public input since the town received a $66,960 grant for its comprehensive plan update from the state Department of Conservation’s Smart Growth Program. The comprehensive plan, a written document that describes a community’s goals and details specific plans to reach them, was first written in 1980 and last updated in 1997.

Wally Walters, chair of the town’s Comprehensive Plan Special Board, said the amount of public input so far has been encouraging. The town held an open house last month, which about 75 people attended, according to Walters.

“We’re very satisfied with the event,” Walters said. “It allowed members of the town to be shown what the comprehensive plan was all about and to take their input on a wide variety of subjects.”

The open house resulted in feedback and voicing concerns over a variety of topics. Walters said that on the economic development side, there was interest in goals like the revitalization of Main Street, support for small businesses and particularly arts businesses, as well as more health care options. Affordable housing and senior housing, as well as infrastructure and cell service, were other concerns. Residents expressed an interest in more community spaces and in town recreation opportunities. They were also interested in addressing environmental impact through various means.

Walters said the feedback that the board has received so far has been in line with the concerns they expected to hear about. However, there were a few topics that were emphasized more than the board had initially expected.

“Not a tremendous amount of surprises,” Walters said. “There was an increased emphasis on child care, which was an issue that we hadn’t identified as much.”

For the most part, the survey is meant to expand on this insight and to get feedback from a greater number of residents. So far, they have had over 200 responses, which bodes well for the amount of data the board will be able to collect. The survey is designed to gauge community sentiment on specific topics and statements, but there are also opportunities to provide feedback in a narrative form.

As the process continues, Walters said there would be additional opportunities for public input. Until the end of the year, the board will continue to hold interviews with groups and stakeholders from the town, and the public is also encouraged to contact the board with any feedback.

The next step will be for the board to consolidate the feedback into focused topics. Then, they will do research and conduct studies on those topics into the new year, Walters said. Start-to-finish, the comprehensive plan update is intended to take around three years.

“We truly are embracing the full notion of ‘comprehensive,'” Walters said.