Officials from the City of Columbus and the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce agreed to participate in a statewide initiative designed to measure how well Nebraska communities measure up in nine categories known to be important to individuals seeking out new communities.

Data from Columbus will then be compared to aggregate data from all participating communities across the state.

“This isn’t a contest,” said Travis Hollman, president of Hollman Media. “Knowing what your community is doing well and not so well is valuable to the community’s strategic planning process. This survey instrument is unique in that it is based on solid research that found that people wanted nine things in any community. Some of those nine things surprised us, but they make up the nine things being measured in the participating communities.”