GRAVETTE — Next year, 2010, will be the year for the official U. S. Census, which is required every ten years and April 1 is the official U. S. Census date.
Residents will receive their census forms a few weeks prior to that since they will be mailed March 10, according to Lou Anderson, U. S. Census Bureau manager for Arkansas.
Residents should complete the forms and return them within a day or two, he advised.
“If people mail in their cards, it saves some serious tax dollars,” Anderson said. The form takes less than 10 minutes to complete and participation is required by law, according to the U. S. Census Bureau.
Address canvassing, in which a census worker visits homes, is conducted when people do not return their cards.
The canvassing is scheduled to be completed by May 1.
“Anybody who forgets to mail (the card) back, we’ll be dropping by,” Anderson said.
The 2010 census has only eight to nine questions on it.
One of the needed steps in the process of a census is finished.
“We found every house in the state of Arkansas,” Anderson said, referring to the completed address verification.
The Census Bureau isnow working on groupquarters validation - determining high-density residential buildings, such as nursing homes and college dorms, to ensure every person is counted.
The two managers for the northwest Arkansas office, based in Springdale, have been selected and are training for their responsibilities, Anderson said.
Federal law protects personal information. The census data is used to determine congressional seats, as well as the distribution of federal money to local and state governments.
Additional information can be found at www.census.gov.
News, Pages 9 on 10/21/2009