CALAIS – Even Judy East has to do all her work via dial-up Internet access.

The principal planner for the Washington County Council of Governments, East works from an office in the Calais city building, where high-speed Internet access has not been available to date.

Determining how much of the county has access to high-speed Internet, as well as reliable cellular phone reception, has been one of the Council of Governments’ recent projects.

Friday was the deadline for 6,000 households and businesses in Washington County to respond to either of two surveys, which were mailed out on Jan. 17.

Late Friday, East reported that about 16 percent of the surveys were returned. “That’s a respectable number for these kinds of surveys,” she said.

The Council of Governments took the lead on the project. Support came from both the Sunrise County Economic Council in Machias and the Eastern Maine Development Corp. in Bangor.

“Anyone who has driven [U.S] Route 1 through Washington County knows how frequently your cell phone can’t get reception,” said Chris Spruce, a community planner with the economic council.

“There is a direct link between the ability to develop communities and the economy of a region and a good telecommunications infrastructure. That’s what is driving these surveys.”

The surveys come at a time when businesses increasingly come in the form of a person who can sit at home and communicate with the rest of the world through high-speed Internet.

With consistent, not spotty, cell phone coverage, that person can be reached from any place.

That’s not the case in Washington County – not yet, at least. “The goal of the survey is to show how a strong telecommunications infrastructure supports economic development,” East said.

“We are trying to get a sense whether people are satisfied with their current Internet or cellular service, and if not, then why. We also asked if those services were improved, would they do more business, or even be motivated to open a business within the county.”

The survey came to life last year as part of a state planning grant that identified Calais, Eastport and Machias as three places where residents and businesses could be surveyed.

When additional funding from U.S. Rural Development came together, East, Spruce and John Holden of Eastern Maine decided that the survey could go countywide.

Surveys also went to 500 businesses, selected from among Tower Publishing’s total list of 755 Washington County businesses.

The project has been guided by an advisory committee that has met since last fall. There are 22 members, ranging from ordinary county residents who have related their experiences with poor Internet speed or cellular reception, to Internet-industry professionals already at work within the county on finding solutions.

East took steps to keep the random survey truly random. There were 3,000 Internet surveys mailed and 3,000 more cell phone surveys mailed. The households were selected from routes within zip codes throughout the county.

Target Marketing, a Rockland firm, handled the mailing.

East knew she had struck a chord across the county when she received calls from one accountant, one surveyor and one Chamber of Commerce director. All asked if they could help the project by copying and making the surveys available to others.

East appreciated their enthusiasm, but declined their offers. After all, the surveys were made random on purpose and the results shouldn’t be skewed, even by someone’s good intentions.

She was pleased Friday when the survey deadline formally passed at 5 p.m. Once analyzed, the survey results will be available by the end of March.