Baldwin residents like their city leaders. They’re satisfied with the public library.

But when it comes to other city services like electricity and the condition of streets and sidewalks residents see much room for improvement, a Baker University survey shows.

Pat Sebek, Baldwin power plant operator, surveys generators. Councilman Todd Cohen said the city was taking bids to build a new power plant to be completed in summer 2004.

Baldwin Mayor Ken Hayes said the city service concerns raised by the survey, completed as a class project by Baker computer science students, weren’t a big surprise.

“It confirmed our suspicions about the areas that needed work,” Hayes said.

Nearly 53 percent of respondents were “unsatisfied” or “very unsatisfied” with electricity service.

“I keep a flashlight and a windup alarm clock by my bed,” Baldwin resident Anne Underwood said in May, after minor storms knocked out her power several evenings in a row. “I could handle if (power outages) were just a once-in-a-while occurrence, but this is an every-time-it-rains occurrence.”

Councilman Todd Cohen said the city had been aware of frustration about frequent outages and was now taking bids to build a new power plant, which should be complete in summer 2004.

“The one we have now is quite old, and the engines are beyond their life spans at this point,” he said.

Also ranking high on the dissatisfaction scales of those surveyed were city streets and sidewalks. About 51 percent of respondents were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with the condition of the city’s walkways and roadways.

Cohen said it had been years since the city had focused on streets and sidewalks. After seeing the survey, he said, it will work on projects like repairing sidewalks, putting in more curb cuts and installing better lighting.

Another sore point raised by the survey was cable television service. Fifty-eight percent of respondents were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with cable service, which is provided to Baldwin residents by MediaCom. Cohen said he had noticed high satellite usage in Baldwin, a response, he suspected, to price increases in recent years.

“One thing the survey can do is be a tool to get our providers … to make improvements,” Cohen said.

Other city services the survey addressed included city police, animal control, telephone, garbage, sewer, postal, parks and recreation, city council and mayor, library and availability of retail businesses. More than half the respondents were either satisfied or very satisfied with these services.

Surveys were mailed this winter to about 1,500 Baldwin households, Cohen said, and about 500 were returned. City council members said they would like to repeat the survey every few years.