The U.S. census deadline of April 22 has come and gone, yet many people in Blaine County have not been counted.
Census workers do not send forms to post office boxes, which can be a problem for many Blaine County residents. Few get their mail at the end of the driveway in a mailbox. Many are also out of town during the spring "slack" season.
Bob Henley lives on Willow Way on the south side of East Fork Road, in the mid-valley. As of Monday morning, he had not been contacted by census workers, but was eager to take part in the 2010 census.
"I absolutely want to be counted," Henley said. "It is important from a funding standpoint that as many of us be counted as possible."
Participation in the census is considered vital because the federal government uses the population data to help determine distribution of some $400 billion in federal funds to state and local governments every year—for schools, roads, health care and other critical programs. That's $4 trillion in funding between censuses taken every decade. The information is also used to allocate seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and to redistrict state legislatures.
Don Peña, partnership specialist for the 2010 census working in Boise, said Friday that 40 census workers were recently hired to knock on doors in the Ketchum area alone. He said they will be going to addresses that have not already sent completed forms to the U.S. Census Bureau.
"We hope to have all the counting finished by the end of July," Peña said.
River guide Mike Tonsmeire is one of the temporary workers knocking on doors north of Ketchum this week and next.
"We normally go to a house up to three times," he said. "If no one answers, we ask neighbors if anyone had been living there as of April 1, 2010."
Tonsmeire said he has knocked on the doors of more than 200 residences north of Ketchum in the past four weeks.
"Some are upset to see me because they have already sent a form in by mail. Others never got the forms in the mail and were waiting for us to arrive," he said.
So far, all Blaine County cities except Hailey have a higher percentage of people mailing back their census forms compared to the last census in 2000.
As of April 27, participation rate changes from 2000 to 2010 were: Ketchum, from 34 percent to 63 percent; Sun Valley, from 17 percent to 28 percent; Hailey, from 68 percent to 64 percent; Bellevue, from 57 percent to 67 percent; and Carey, from 74 percent to 88 percent.
Both Idaho's participation rate, at 75 percent, and the nation's, at 72 percent, are the same as during the 2000 census.
To be counted or get more information on the census, call the Census Helpline at (866) 872-6868.
Tony Evans: tevans@mtexpress.com
Census worker Mike Tonsmeire knocks on a door in Ketchum on Monday. Forty census workers will be contacting residents on foot if they have not already sent in census survey forms to the U.S. Census Bureau. Photo by Willy Cook
