DECEMBER 10, 2009 ISSUE
Census Open House Held December 3
Local Office Hiring Workers, Stressing Importance of Census
Veronica Delgado, regional technician for Boone and Hickory; T.C. Bowser of the Charlotte office; Ceylon Barclay, local census office manager; Loretta Clawson, Boone mayor; Michael Hall, assistant regional census manager; Traci Royster, director of parent and family services at ASU; Kent Etheridge, assistant manager for administration; Catherine Rhuberg, assistant manager for recruiting; and Michelle Brewer, assistant manager for quality assurance; are several of the local dignitaries and census officials who attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Boone Local Census Office on December 3. Photo by Corinne Saunders
The official open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the U.S. Census Bureau Local Census Office (LCO) took place on Thursday, December 3, at the office—located at 148 Highway 105 Extension, Suite 105 in Boone.
Local dignitaries, special guests and those in management positions with both local and regional census offices attended the event.
ASU ROTC performed the presentation and the retirement of the colors for the ceremony, and the Watauga High School Honors Chorus, directed by Lisa Combs, sang the national anthem and selected holiday tunes.
Parkway Elementary students Callie Idol, Tristin Derrick and Megan Edwards sang a patriotic medley under the direction of Sondra Edwards.
The Boone office occupies 6,000 feet, or half the downstairs of the new Boone Point building, and supports 2010 Census operations in eight counties—Ashe, Avery, Burke, Caldwell, McDowell, Mitchell, Watauga and Yancey.
Local Census Office Manager Ceylon Barclay, who formerly consulted for the U.S. Agency for International Development, spoke on his experiences overseas—which included being arrested, bribed and beaten in Grenada, witnessing newspaper and television reporters slain in Russia and seeing students in China brainwashed that Tiananmen Square never happened.
“These experiences share one common thread,” he said, pointing out the lack of representative democracy in those countries.
Fair and equitable representation in Congress is the foundation of democracy in the U.S., a census information pamphlet states, and census figures directly determine congressional seats.
Mandated by the Constitution, the census figures also determine how more than $435 billion in federal funds will be distributed back to towns, cities and municipalities in coming years. This money will go toward improving infrastructure, building schools, hospitals and fire stations and funding everything from senior centers to school lunch programs.
The upcoming 2010 Census will be the 23rd in the nation’s history. Over the 230-year history of the census, $4 trillion in federal funding has been distributed, said Michael Hall, assistant regional census manager with the Charlotte office, which covers North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Parkway Elementary students Megan Edwards, Tristin Derrick and Callie Idol sang a patriotic medley under the direction of Sondra Edwards at the open house ceremony. Photo by Corinne Saunders
“It’s in our hands,” Barclay said of the census and resulting monetary allocations, gesturing to the wall behind him that was covered in pictures of hands that local elementary school students drew for the open house event.
“Ceylon has been a wonderful person in our community for many years,” Clawson said, adding that she is sure he will be a great office manager.
Clawson also expressed enthusiasm over the location of the census office in a “beautiful building” and that the office is located in Boone.
“For those of you who live here, it’s a wonderful opportunity,” she said, stating that the census jobs offer “competitive pay, flexible hours and [the ability] to work in your own community.”
The Town of Boone, Clawson said, is a committed census partner, recognizing that the census impacts every person, the town and the community at large.
Up to 1,100 people will be hired through the Boone LCO in the eight-county area, and most positions will last two to 10 weeks, Hall said.
Pay starts at $11.50 per hour, and although the majority of the positions begin in the spring, the office is currently hiring.
Applicants for jobs with the Local Census Office must be 18; a U.S. citizen or legal resident; pass a background check; be fingerprinted; and pass a written test of basic skills.
Besides determining that applicants are qualified, these measures also ensure the safety of the people whose homes census workers enter, Hall said.
Michael Hall, assistant regional census manager, speaks on the importance of everyone informing friends, family and neighbors of the importance of the census. Photo by Corinne Saunders
Census Information
The information acquired by the census once every 10 years is strictly used for statistics, and is not accessible to authorities of any kind, under any circumstances.
The purpose of the census is to gather numbers, demonstrating the population, ethnic make-up, age, income and other demographics of the population of the U.S. as a whole and for each state and individual city or town.
“Twelve percent of our population moves every year,” Barclay said. “The North is losing people. The South is gaining people.”
Census workers are sworn to keep information confidential for 72 years, Barclay said.
The penalty for leaking out information collected from the census is a fine of $250,000 and/or five years in jail, Hall said.
The national census campaign will begin in January, Hall said, adding that the U.S. Census Bureau will run a Super Bowl ad, as well as an ad during a NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn.
Census questionnaires will be mailed in mid-March and should be completed and returned by Census Day, April 1.
Beginning late March, census officials will track the form return rate in percentages for states and individual zip codes across the country, and this information will be accessible online to the general public, too, Hall said.
“Anybody in the country can see how many people have turned in the forms,” he said.
“We want to stress [that] when the form comes, do not procrastinate; mail it back in,” Hall continued, adding that he encourages people to apply for jobs with the census.
“We need your help,” Hall said. “We ask every person to tell 10 people about the importance of the census.”
As a result of the 2000 Census, North Carolina gained a congressional seat that would have gone to Utah if 1,000 more residents had been counted in that state, Hall said.
Official census figures will be given to President Barack Obama by December 31, 2010.
Hall stressed that it is important to count every person living in the area, and no questions as to whether residents are legal or not will be raised.
“Our goal is to make sure we count everybody once and count everybody correctly,” he said.
“When the numbers are handed to President Obama in 2010, everyone in the Boone office jurisdiction will be counted,” Hall said. “That’s our mission. We’re depending on you. Thank you, everyone.”
For more information about the census, click to www.census.gov. For more information or to schedule an employment test, call 828-832-5906.
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