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By Karla Pomeroy
Editor 

Hot Springs County spreading the word on the census

 

December 19, 2019



THERMOPOLIS — While most people, towns and counties are not thinking about the 2020 census until 2020 actually rolls around, folks in Hot Springs County have been spreading the word about the importance of the census for the past six months.

Judy Carswell is the census contact person for Hot Springs County and chairman of the county’s Census Complete Count Committee.

“Our job is to inform the public about the U.S. census. We’ve been working for about six months now. We talk to people wherever we can go,” Carswell said, adding that they have visited Thermopolis Rotary and Hot Springs County Senior Citizens Center.

She said she has seen a few census employees starting to be in the area. “What they are doing is the same thing, just starting to inform the public,” Carswell said.

Carswell said, “We’re trying to tell everyone that by the Constitution you are required to respond to the census. The census was written into the Constitution. We have to respond every 10 years. This is how representatives from each state are determined, by population.”

She said some federal funding for local programs are determined by population.

Carswell said invitations to the census will be mailed out in March and people will have three ways to respond — phone, online or U.S. mail. If you fail to respond then census takers will come to your home. “They will continue to come until they get somebody [to respond]. I’ve been telling everyone in our county if they just respond in one of those three easy ways then they are not going to have somebody coming to the house to bother them.”

The actual kick off day, Census Day is April 1, she added.

Carswell said 95% of the residents in the country will receive the basic census questionnaire with 5% receiving the long-form questionnaire.

Carswell said she doesn’t mind answering questions about the census people may have. They can send questions through the Hot Springs County Wyoming 2020 Census Facebook page or email Carswell at [email protected].

Carswell said she had retired from the county and was asked to come back to the be the census contact person for the county.

The Hot Springs County Census Complete Count Committee includes about 12 community members with representatives from county planner, emergency management, library, public health, Town of Thermopolis, ministerial association and several other entities.

Other ways the committee is getting their census information out is through the town with messages on utility bills, and the county assessor on the tax notices.

Carswell said the census needs workers and jobs are available at census.gov.

The biggest thing for people to know is that the census is going to happen and the easiest thing to do is “respond quickly and be done.”

Carswell said the apportionment counts need to be sent to the president by Dec. 31, 2020.

“The governor is pushing for everyone to be counted. Our commissioners think it’s important that we get the information out there. They want us to have as much money as we can per capita,” Carswell said

For Washakie County, County Clerk Mary Grace Strauch said she has begun looking into forming a group and will be working with the Town of Ten Sleep and City of Worland after the first of the year to set up a committee.

Big Horn County Clerk Lori Smallwood said she understands the importance of the census and will be looking for someone to spearhead the committee in that county.

THE CENSUS

According to a fact sheet provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, “The U.S. Census Bureau is the federal government’s largest statistical agency. We are dedicated to providing current facts and figures about America’s people, places, and economy. Federal law protects the confidentiality of all individual responses the Census Bureau collects. The U.S. Constitution [Article 1, Section 2] requires that each decade [the U.S.] take a count— or a census—of America’s population.”

The census includes all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Island areas —  Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the North Mariana Islands.

The Census Bureau states that the census provides vital information for you and your community.

• It determines how many representatives each state gets in Congress and is used to redraw district boundaries. Redistricting counts are sent to the states by March 31, 2021.

•Some communities rely on census statistics to plan for a variety of resident needs including new roads, schools, and emergency services.

•Businesses use census data to determine where to open places to shop.

Each year, the federal government distributes more than $675 billion to states and communities based on Census Bureau data.

 
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