The town's Economic Development Commission wants to bring more new businesses to town. There seems to be no one better to ask about the benefits of setting up shop in East Haven than the store owners already in business here-but the commission needed a formal way in which to ask those questions and gain some valuable feedback.

The solution was to craft and distribute a survey to the businesses in town to learn what East Haven should do to attract new businesses.

The survey will be sent to about 1,500 members of the business community early this year. It is comprised of 15 questions. One question the survey asks is: What do you enjoy the most about conducting your business within the town of East Haven? Multiple choice answers include: banking services availability, overall customer base, town beautification efforts, or ease of access for customers. Other questions include: What do you feel the town's Economic Development Commission could do to help your business grow? Why did you consider East Haven as a destination for conducting your business?

"We need to know what the business community needs from the town and the commission," said Robert Limoncelli, chairman of the Economic Development Commission and chairman of the board of the East Haven Chamber of Commerce.

Limoncelli said he brought the idea about conducting a survey to the commission. The goal of the survey is simply "to gain an understanding [about the challenges and benefits of doing business in East Haven] and get some feedback" from the business owners; those who can offer first-hand knowledge of the town's business climate, said Limoncelli.

"The idea is to get as much feedback as possible," added Paul Hongo, East Haven's deputy director of town affairs. "We would like to get a good, sound majority."

Once the survey results are reviewed, the commission plans to conduct focus groups to further discuss and develop the feedback received by the business owners. Limoncelli said he expects to bring the focus groups together sometime in March.

Hongo said the hope is to offer the survey online, but, regardless of how it is presented (either online or as a print document), a main objective is to make it easy for business owners to respond so the commission can obtain as much data as possible. Once the survey is available, the Courier will print and post information online.