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Eaglecrest Ski Area released results Friday of an online survey showing a split among non-skiers over the city's financial role in the operation, but high satisfaction levels from its users.

More than 1,100 people completed the professionally made survey, which was conducted online in August and September.

The longest question spoke to costs and a perennial point of ire for many fiscal conservatives - whether or not Juneau taxpayers should be subsidizing the ski area, a special revenue fund operation the city owns and indirectly operates.

Among the 103 respondents who had never skied or snowboarded at Eaglecrest, 49 percent indicated support of the subsidy, 32 percent opposition and 19 percent chose "neutral" or "don't know."

Of the 735 ski area users who answered the same question, 91 percent indicated support. However, the wording of the question may have skewed the results in favor of city support, said Dana L. Thomas, a statistics professor with the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The question verbatim, as posed:

"User fees cover about 70 percent of the total Eaglecrest budget. The remainder is provided by the City and Borough of Juneau through General Fund support. This General Fund support allows Eaglecrest to offer passes and tickets at prices lower than would be possible otherwise and allows more people to use the area. How supportive are you of Eaglecrest receiving General Fund support from the City and Borough of Juneau?"

Thomas examined the question and flagged two parts that were likely to create a positive bias.

"The statement '... and allows more people to use the area' presumes this to be the case and may not be substantiated with data (I do not know) - however, this statement likely will bias response positively," Thomas wrote via e-mail.

Secondly, the question itself - How supportive are you? - is leading.

"A better question would be 'What is your opinion about the use of general funds for Eaglecrest ...' or 'Which of the following statements best represents your opinion on the use of general funds for Eaglecrest,'" Thomas wrote.

Jim Calvin, who is president of Eaglecrest's board of directors and a principal with the firm commissioned for the survey, the McDowell Group, said it wasn't intended to be biased.

"We tried very hard to make it a balanced question. I think we were pretty careful about that," he said.

Calvin said traditionally there is very strong community support of the city's role.

"It's a real asset for community, an important part of quality of life for the community."

Calvin said the survey cost $4,900.

The survey also showed an 88 percent overall satisfaction level among the ski area's users, with 8 percent neutral and 4 percent dissatisfied.

"We were certainly hopeful that Eaglecrest users be pleased. It was particularly gratifying to see it quantified," Calvin said.

Only 3 percent of the respondents indicated that they usually take the Eaglecrest bus to the ski area. The bus runs on Saturdays, Sundays and school holidays during the ski season. A round-trip ticket is $6.

On a question about safety issues, the most common concerns were about skiers and boarders going too fast, being reckless, or stopping in the middle of a run; 27 percent indicated they didn't think any safety issues needed to be addressed.

Kirk Duncan, the ski area's general manager, said he wants to use the survey results as a benchmark to measure reaction to changes at Eaglecrest. He said he plans to run a survey again next year.

• Contact reporter Jeremy Hsieh at 523-2258 or e-mail jeremy.hsieh@juneauempire.com.