The city of Milton has been made aware that all of the recently mailed Parks and Recreation Needs Assessment surveys were sent without an envelope in which to return the data.

The city has worked with third-party research firm the Schapiro Group, Inc. and Tucker Castleberry, the mailing house that handled the surveys, to correct this omission.

Tucker Castleberry has pledged to mail for a second time the entire 11,385 print run of the survey at no cost to the city or taxpayers.

"We at Tucker Castleberry Printing apologize to the citizens of the City of Milton for having omitted the return envelopes," a representative for the company said in a statement. "We failed to meet our usually high standards, and we are going to make this right at no cost to the taxpayers. We are resending Needs Assessments with return envelopes, and they should arrive in your mailbox by the end of next week."

This means that residents have two options. Residents may complete their initial survey and send it back in the envelope mailed to them shortly by Tucker Castleberry. Or residents may choose to discard the initial mailing and complete and return the second survey.

The city and The Schapiro Group, Inc. assure residents that the mistake will not affect the anonymity of the responses to the survey, nor their statistical validity. The new deadline for returning the survey is April 19.

"As Parks and Recreation Director, I am very disappointed in this omission," Cyndee Bonacci said in a statement. "Much time and effort went into creating this survey instrument and this error was completely unexpected and beyond our control. That said, I hope residents will take the time to fill out the survey and return it to ensure their voices are heard."

The data collected through the survey is of utmost importance to the future of the city's Parks and Recreation Department. The results will be used to understand community desires, overall ranking of projects and funding options for those projects.