Monday, 29 March 2010 01:34

Local Census Operations in Full Swing

slide4-local_census_operations_in_full_swing.pngAmador County – The U.S. Census Bureau is in the process of sending out questionnaires to every household in the United States as part of a constitutional mandate to count the country’s population every ten years. In Amador County, all residents with physical addresses are in the process of receiving the forms by mail. Barbara Ferry, Senior Partner Specialist with the Census Bureau, told TSPN that residents who do not receive their mail at a physical address will eventually need to be hand-counted in an upcoming second wave of census operations. In early February, the Board of Supervisors approved the donation of space at the County Administration Building to assist the bureau with local operations. The space will also be used to assist residents in filling out their census forms, if needed. “As we prepare our workers to go out into the field and knock on doors to gather census information, we also need to train them, so your County has been very gracious in offering us some space so we can train people locally,” said Ferry. Those operations were underway last Tuesday, where new census workers were being fingerprinted as part of the hiring process. TSPN was bluntly denied an interview or access to take pictures, but we were able to snap one shot of the event. As part of a multi-million dollar ad campaign, the Census is ensuring citizens that all the information shared is completely confidential. The census form has been revised this year to just ten simple questions seeking information on the number of residents in each household and other basic information. In a recent interview, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke noted that even the provisions of the Patriot Act do not override census privacy protections. He also said that for every one percent increase in the number of people who return their census forms, taxpayers will save about $85 million. Ferry said participation in the census is important for two basic reasons: power and money. “It’s power through the apportionment that happens because of the population area that the Census Bureau defines in order to know where our congressional districts come from as well as all our state legislative districts,” said Ferry. As for the money, she said every year the federal government divides $470 billion among local communities, and that is based in large part upon the census results. “To put it in basic terms, filling out your form and sending it back is like writing a check for $1,700 per person per year, right back to your community.” The census began mailing out questionnaires in mid-March. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.