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The big census roundup is coming soon
City officials asked to help with count

Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN
Gail Sadler of the U.S. Census Bureau speaks to Williams City Council members during their May 28 regular meeting.

Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN Gail Sadler of the U.S. Census Bureau speaks to Williams City Council members during their May 28 regular meeting.

WILLIAMS - Officials with the city of Williams were told they would have a very important role to play in the upcoming 2010 U.S. Census. To get an accurate head count of those living within the city and surrounding areas, officials will have to make sure residents know the census is coming and how important it is to county and city governments, said Gail Sadler of the U.S. Census Bureau. Sadler visited with city council members during their May 28 regular meeting at Williams City Hall.

"The Census Bureau is going to come and do their enumeration, but how you do in the census isn't going to be done in Denver or Washington, D.C. If you get a complete count in Williams, it's going to be up to us to make sure that your folks here know it is coming, know they're supposed to answer it, and that they respond to the census," Sadler said. "Census day is April 1, 2010. The count is effective, just in the household, that day. Where you're at on April 1 is where you're supposed to get counted."

Sadler said the census constituted nothing more than a head count of everyone who lives in a certain area.

"A lot of folks don't realize that the census is a census of residents. It's not a census of citizens," Sadler said. "Just as in 1790, when they did the first census and everybody was from somewhere else, there was no criteria for who was a resident, or who was a citizen, of the United States of America."

She said that Arizona is "standing on the brink of a historic census," when it comes to redistricting as the result of the head count.

"Based on estimates, Arizona stands to gain two in the House of Representatives and the big winners in this redistricting are going to be the west and the south: Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Oregon and probably Florida will gain seats in the House of Representatives. That shifts the power from New York and California to the west and to the south," Sadler said.

Federal funding, grants, as well as a number of other financial sources, are based on census numbers, she added, which includes funds for the local school and other educational programs. In the past however, Williams has not fared well when it came to response rates. Sadler asked that city officials help form a partnership with Census 2010 to bring that response rate up.

"If people understand that the services the city provides and the services the country provides are based on those census numbers, then they will understand that, by answering the census, they're actually helping to fund the things that they find helpful," Sadler said. "So we are asking you to form a complete count committee. Your complete count committee has three jobs: to identify the people and the areas that are at risk to be undercounted and then to identify the trusted voices in your community that can help with that education awareness, motivational assistance and to coordinate their efforts with the county and other cities and partners that we're bringing to the table to help effectively carry out this planned activity."

Williams Mayor John Moore added that it will be important to try and get as important a count as possible when it comes to the 10-year head count.

"The census is very, very important. We sometimes don't think of it as being very important, but it has a big impact on a lot of things," Moore said.


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