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City: Census is a numbers game, and you count

From Staff Reports

Published: November 2, 2009

The city of Marion wants to make sure everyone gets counted.
The city is working with the U.S. Census Bureau to promote the 2010 census. Marion officials have formed a Complete Count Committee, comprised of representatives from the city, the school system, the faith community and business leaders to develop ways to spread the word about the 2010 census. The city provided a booth for the U.S. Census Bureau at the Mountain Glory festival held on Saturday, Oct. 10. Many people visited the booth and learned more about the upcoming count.
Census forms will be mailed out to households in March. Census workers will later visit any households who had not returned the forms by April. Federal law requires that all individuals be counted in the census and that everyone complete the forms.
"We want people to realize that the census is safe, easy and necessary," said Mayor Everette Clark. "All information collected by the census is confidential for 72 years and, under federal law, cannot be shared with any governmental agency, business or individual. The 2010 census form is designed to be simple and involve only 10 questions for the head of household and a few additional questions about additional members of the household. In addition, federal law requires people to complete the census forms and it is vital for our community that all persons be counted."
City Manager Bob Boyette said hundreds of billions of dollars in federal and state dollars will be distributed to local governments over the next 10 years as a result of population.
"If we have people that are not counted locally, the city and county do not receive their fair share of state and federal funding, and we must live with an incorrect census figure for the next 10 years," said Boyette. "Therefore, it is vital that we count everyone."
The city of Marion worked with the Census Bureau in recent years to review and update the local address list. Boyette said the city's planning and development director located several hundred addresses in Marion that the Census Bureau did not have in its database.
Clark said more people are needed to serve on the Complete Count Committee.
"We need people from the business and faith communities, representing civic and nonprofit groups and other interested people to participate," he added. "It is in all our best interests to ensure that we count everyone locally in the 2010 census."
The city has offered the use of its buildings to serve as locations for census information and forms to be displayed. The Census Bureau will select such sites in the near future.
The next meeting of the Complete Count Committee will likely be held in December. Anyone interested in serving on the committee or in learning more about the 2010 census should contact City Manager Bob Boyette at City Hall at 652-3551 or bboyette@marionnc.org. People may also learn more about the 2010 census by visiting the city's Web site at www.marionnc.org or the Census Bureau's Web site at www.census.gov.