Anne Arundel Community College may not rank highly as a needed service, but county residents feel the college is a good buy for the money, according to a college survey.

The survey, conducted by the college's Center for the Study of Local Issues on Feb. 3-6, found that 59percent of the respondents believe the community college provides a very important service in the county.

However, the 59 percent placed the community college eighth on a list of 12 county services viewed as "very important" by the respondents. Fire department services topped the list, with 93 percent of therespondents citing it as very important.

Police services ranked second with 90 percent of the respondents listing it as very important. Cultural arts came in 12th, with 22 percent of the respondents listing it as very important.

Even though the community college's service ranked eighth, the college received an "A" rating among residentswho were asked which services they consider a good buy.

ElizabethKessel, director of the center, said she believes the response is based on familiarity. Of the 467 residents surveyed, 48 percent said they or another member of their household had attended the college in the past five years. Another 45 percent said they planned to attend the college in the next two to five years.

In addition, both the cost and the quality of education received at the college was ranked excellent or good by 70 percent and 80 percent of the respondents, respectively.