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Saline County launches 2010 census |
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Thursday, 02 April 2009 |
It may have been April Fool’s Day, but local leaders were quite serious Wednesday when they pledged their commitment to the kickoff of the 2010 census in Saline County.
Mayors of the county’s municipalities gathered in County Judge Lanny Fite’s office in Benton to sign a proclamation declaring Thursday as the official start of the tally that generates funds for streets, infrastructure improvements and other projects to benefit communities.
Fite noted that the county and the mayors of its municipalities have both a unique opportunity and responsibility to participate by bringing local knowledge and expertise to the process and plan and implement local outreach efforts to publicize the importance of the 2010 census.
The judge also noted that the county will provide space for training employees, display and distribute 2010 census materials, issue public endorsements for the 2010 census and provide links on city and county Web sites for the promotion.
He said one of the primary goals of the census is to increase the county mail-back response rate, thereby committing to the most accurate and efficient census.
In the proclamation declaring the start of the census, Fite and the mayors called upon the people of Saline County “to join their fellow citizens across the United States in cooperation for a complete and accurate count.”
“I hope everybody takes time to fill out the short forms they will be receiving,” Haskell Mayor Jeff Arey said. “This doesn’t have anything to do with jeopardizing one’s identity, so people shouldn’t be concerned about that.
“This means more in state and federal turnback funds and also can be beneficial when applying for grants,” Arey said.
Larance Davis, mayor of Shannon Hills, pointed out that everyone benefits from an accurate counting.
Benton Mayor Rick Holland said the “key to success of the census is cooperation in completing the surveys.”
“We need to make sure people understand the importance of this,” he said. “This means money that will be coming to the city and county.”
Shirley Johnson, mayor of Alexander, also encouraged cooperation among residents.
“This isn’t just a random check,” she said. “This is important to all of our cities and our county.”
Gary Duncan, Bauxite’s mayor, also voiced his support for the census project.
Saline County’s population estimate has been projected to be as high as 103,000, but the total in the last official census in 2000 was 83,562, Fite said.
A special census in the city of Benton was conducted in 2006. That tally raised the city’s population from less than 22,000 to 27,717, thus bringing in additional state and federal turnback funds, Holland noted.
Fite said he expects the final results of the new census “a year from today.”
“They have told us that for each additional person, it can mean $1,000 per year, so it’s really important that everyone is counted,” he said.
Every decade since 1790 the U.S. Census Bureau has conducted a constitutionally mandated census to determine the number of people living with the United States and its territories, the proclamation notes.
Census data reportedly affects how more than $300 billion in federal funds are distributed to state and local governments each year.
The Census Bureau’s partnership program reportedly combines the strengths of local governments to ensure a complete and accurate counting.
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