The owners of residences, businesses and other properties in Olde Towne Slidell are being asked to participate in a study intended to assist in the aggressive post-hurricane effort to revitalize the city’s historic heart.

Copies of the Olde Towne Slidell Preservation District Survey have been mailed to members of the Olde Towne community to gauge their concerns about the neighborhood’s problems and to inventory its positive and negative characteristics.

Participants are asked to name the two biggest problems facing the Olde Towne area, for example, and to rate from 1-to-5 various neighborhood characteristics. Tree-lined streets, museums and galleries, restaurants, performing arts venues, and an outdoor farmer’s market are just some of the items considered. The three-page survey was prepared by the Social Science Research Center of Southeastern Louisiana University at the request of the Olde Towne Slidell Task Force and the City of Slidell. The Olde Towne Slidell Association, which paid for the postage, is the sponsor.

In a letter accompanying the survey, the authors of the survey said the results of this survey will help them gather information and ideas that will help in the economic development and revitalization of Olde Towne.

According to research center director Bonnie Lewis and poll and survey coordinator Kurt Corbello, the information gathered will remain confidential, and will be reported only as grouped data. The survey is voluntary, and anyone who wishes not to answer a particular question may leave it blank.

Brenda Case, chair of the task force’s Economic Development Committee, is asking those receiving the surveys to complete and return them as quickly as possible.

“The survey will be a cornerstone of our plans going forward and will also give us a baseline from which to measure our progress,” she said. “We need and want your thoughtful and honest input.”

Olde Towne Slidell is located in the south-central portion of the city, and was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.