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Charles City Mayor: Filling out census important to community

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City mayor has a message and a plea for city residents: Answer the 2020 census if you haven’t already.

The self-reporting deadline to answer the census survey is Sept. 30. After that, the Census Bureau will attempt to contact you in person at your residence.

“The statewide average is 70.7% in self-reporting,” Mayor Dean Andrews said. “Charles City is at 66.1%, so obviously we’d like to get that higher, because the more (responses) you get the better off you are.”

Census figures are used for a variety of purposes, including drawing political districts at the local, state and federal level.

Charles City Mayor: Filling out census important to community
Mayor Dean Andrews

The information is also used to determine how a lot of federal funding is distributed.

“Obviously the reason we are encouraging people to do this is a lot of funding is based on per capita numbers in your community,” Andrews said.

“Like road use tax — whatever the dollar number is you get that times the number of people in your city. And this will count for the next 10 years, so obviously one person not counted will equate to several thousand dollars over the course of 10 years,” Andrews said.

“That’s why it’s so important and why we’re encouraging people to respond so that we have an accurate count of everybody in town,” he said.

There are three ways to respond before the Sept. 30 self-reporting deadline, Andrews said.

“The easiest and most effective way is to go to www.my2020census.gov,” he said. “You can also call this phone number, 844-330-2020, or if you still have the paper questionnaire that was sent to you, you can still do that, but it has to be postmarked by the 30th.”

Andrews said that previously, people who were responding online or by phone needed an official identification number that was included with the mailed census form. That is no longer necessary.

“All you do is put in your address and they will let you respond with just your address, so you don’t need to know your ID number anymore,” he said.

“We just really want to encourage people to try and get this done by the 30th,” he said. “No. 1, it gets done, and No. 2, you don’t have to worry about someone coming and knocking on your door.”

The Census Bureau has several safeguards in their online or phone process, Andrews said.

“They’re not asking for your Social Security number. They’re not asking if you are an illegal immigrant. They’re not asking any of those questions. They’re really not asking very many personal questions,” he said.

People who use the phone or the online option can also chose from 13 different languages in which to respond, including English and Spanish.

Andrews said, “If you don’t respond and you have a census person come to your house, they are going to social distance, they’re going to wear masks, they’re going to ask the same information that is on the form. Again, it will be a safe, secure process, but it certainly is much easier to go online and do it or call the phone number, as opposed to having somebody come to your door.”

The census is asking for the household information that was in effect on April 1, Census Day, Andrews said. “It’s not how many people are there today, it’s how many people were there on April 1st.”

 

 

 

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