Local census efforts receive
praise
By Erica Sagon
Asst.
City Editor
Local legislators
congratulated community residents Monday on their effort to get counted
in the 2000 census. The percentage of returned census forms on a local
and state level exceeded the national rate.
West Lafayette and
Lafayette mayors Sonya Margerum and Dave Heath, along with Ruth Shedd,
Tippecanoe County commissioner, and Census 2000 officials held a press
conference Monday to report the percentage of census forms that have been
returned.
Based on statistics
from April 11, 69 percent of census forms from West Lafayette were returned.
Lafayette had a 68 percent return rate, Wabash Township had 67 percent,
Tippecanoe County had 68 percent and Indiana had 64 percent. All of these
rates are higher than the national average return rate of 62 percent.
"I think the community
has really gone overboard to fill out their forms, and try to understand
why it's important for them to answer their census forms," said Shedd.
Margerum also commended
the communities on their participation in the census.
"We were very pleased
with the return rate," Margerum said. "It shows the Full Count Committee
has done a good job."
The Full Count Committee
led by Alan Grady of West Lafayette Development raised local support for
the census.
Local legislators
are pleased with the current rate, but their goal is to achieve an 80
percent return rate in Tippecanoe County.
Shedd said this rate
is feasible because "we've got pretty high rates already."
To reach the 80 percent
return rate, door-to-door census counters will be knocking on the doors
of residences starting April 24.
Margerum said there
are hundreds of enumerators, or door-to-door census counters, for Tippecanoe
County, and the Census Bureau is still hiring for this position.
The enumerators will
visit a residence up to three times to get the requested information on
the census forms.
"As you can see,
it gets to be rather expensive for all of us if people don't answer (the
form)," Margerum said.
Margerum said there
was a concern that students wouldn't take the census seriously. Many students
thought they should be counted in their hometown even though they should
technically be counted at their campus residence.
"Nine months of year,
students are provided with services by all the local agencies, that is
the reason they're counted here," Margerum said.
Statistics for Purdue's
return rate were not available, but Margerum said students made a good
effort to return their forms.
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