In the week since Centennial Day, the reviews have been everywhere. Scroll any local feed and you will find them: the fireworks over Memorial Field, kids mid-air in the bounce houses, neighbors running into neighbors on a closed-down Main Street. Even the Wyckoff Police Department joined in, thanking attendees for "an incredible day filled with community spirit, family fun, and pride in our township's rich history."[3] But none of that enthusiasm — not one like, comment, or share — reaches the people planning what comes next. There is exactly one channel that does, and the township opened it without fanfare: a short thank-you note, posted to the township website July 2[1] and sent out the same day in its email newsletter,[5] asking for feedback. It deserves every bit of the attention the celebration itself got.

"Thank you to all who attended our Centennial Day events," it reads. "We would appreciate your feedback."[1] Attached is a survey — and the survey turns out to be asking a much bigger question than how we liked the fair.

Tucked into its later pages, the township asks directly: Would you like to see the Township host more community events throughout the year?[2] Then it gets specific. Which kinds — street fairs, food truck festivals, concerts, outdoor movie nights, seasonal festivals, holiday celebrations, a farmers market, a classic car show, historic or heritage tours, fitness and wellness events? How often — with options ranging from monthly to quarterly to a few times a year to only for special occasions? It asks how important it is that the township keep partnering with sponsors to pay for such events, and whether you or your business would sponsor, volunteer, or set up a booth at a future event.[2]

To be clear, the township has made no commitment here — no promise of a next event, no pledge to follow the survey's results. But the questions speak for themselves: you do not ask a town which of ten kinds of events it wants, and how often, unless the possibility is on the table. This survey is the one structured channel of resident input the township has opened on that question, and whatever gets decided, the case for more — or fewer, or different — events will be easier to make if it is sitting in the data.

So here is the service-journalism part. The survey runs eight pages, and I will be honest — when I opened it and saw "Page 1 of 8," I nearly closed the tab. Do not. The form's own welcome screen says it takes approximately two to three minutes, and having filled it out, I can report that estimate is honest.[2] Most pages are a handful of taps: your ZIP code, your age bracket, whether you went to the street fair, whether you stayed for the fireworks, what you enjoyed most. The pages are short; eight of them is a layout choice, not a time commitment.

It is also anonymous. The form does not collect your name or email unless you choose to provide it,[2] so there is no cost to being candid — about the parking, the lines, the beer garden, or anything else. Three open-ended questions at the end invite exactly that: your favorite part, the one thing you would improve, and anything else you want the township to know. All three are optional — so the survey takes as long as you have something to say, and no longer.

On the Fourth of July, this paper made a call to action about how our town runs: Wyckoff works because residents show up — at committee meetings, on volunteer boards, in the fire companies. Most of those asks cost an evening. This one costs three minutes on your phone, and it may be the single highest-leverage three minutes of civic participation available in Wyckoff this month. Decisions about community events will get made either way; the only question is whose preferences are in the data when they are.

Remember, too, what the day was up against. "It rained, then it was windy, it was cool, then it got hot," one street-fair vendor wrote afterward — and, as she put it, none of it stopped our community from coming out.[4] A fair that filled Main Street through all of that deserves a response rate to match. If you went — or if you didn't, and want to say why — the survey is open now — linked from the township website's news page[1] — with no stated deadline. Sooner is better than later: the freshest memories write the best feedback.