By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS – Norma Rivas-Ricci of the U.S. Census Bureau visited the Cass County Board of Commissioners Thursday to acclimate local elected officials to preparatory work already underway for the 10-year population count coming up on Thursday, April 1, 2010.
The Census Bureau created a 17-month countdown timeline which included in October opening 10 early local census offices, or ELCOs.
Michigan opens four, Ohio five and West Virginia one.
"Right now we have about 500 days left until the census," Rivas-Ricci related. "We've just opened spaces in Lansing, Grand Rapids, Pontiac and west Detroit to do the first fieldwork.
"With that in mind, the first field operation is called address canvassing. Every single housing unit in the nation is noted. We are doing recruiting for this operation right now in Cass County and in all the other (82) counties in Michigan, probably to the tune of one to two people per ZIP Code.
"Anyone who's interested in census jobs, the quicker they call, the more opportunity you'll have. Call 1-866-861-2010. They'll be connected to the Census Bureau in Detroit. There, a clerk will take their name and find out when they will be having a census test close to this area. Everyone who applies takes this test. Those who score highest are the first ones to be called for a job."
Address canvass operations are scheduled for February through June 2009 and involve recruitment of more than 18,000 temporary staff to verify listings of more than 10.5 million addresses within the region.
Rivas-Ricci said the Lansing office is responsible for Cass County at present.
Six office managers began work there Oct. 1 and will continue until September 2010. Fifty office staff will be recruited. Plus, "We will be looking for 1,200 address canvassers out of that Lansing office. Those working in Cass County will be part of it. The address canvassing operation, people will be physically in the communities, going door to door, in the spring of 2009. That sounds a long way off, but to recruit thousands across the state, you have to do it now. People will be tested and put on an employment bank until we're ready for them to actually start training in February. By March, they'll be going out. Work will take place" over eight weeks "in March, April and May. By the end of May they'll be wrapping up address canvassing."
Rivas-Ricci said the "next big operation for recruitment will be when we get ready for field employees who do the non-response follow-up. That's when we send the censuses out to every single address. Those who don't answer, we have to go back and physically knock on the door to get them to respond."
Census forms "go into the mail prior to April 1," she said. "Some will get to the residences before April 1, some will get there shortly after. Non-response follow-up, which is a very big operation needing many more than two per ZIP Code, will begin in late spring, about the middle of May 2010."
Non-response follow-up lasts until July. The Lansing office closes Sept. 30.
"It's a very quick campaign," she said.
"I'm concerned about people not being counted at all," said Commissioner David Taylor, D-Edwardsburg. "In my district, numerous people do not have mail pickup. It may be young people living in a home owned by their parents. Other people just don't get mail anywhere."
Rivas-Ricci wants to talk to the county commission to enlist its expertise in identifying "where your hard-to-count people are. Shut-ins, people at the poverty line who probably don't read very well and generally also don't vote. We need your input. Based on your leadership and your knowledge of your community, we'll get a complete count.
"Bringing folks to the table from churches, social service agencies. We can set up questionnaire assistance centers in those buildings – a simple table and chairs set off to the side with someone from the neighborhood who would be hired and trained and someone from the Census Bureau to assist people who can't read it or understand it. If you're interested, I can come back in February, March or April to tell you more about what I can do as a resource. What we're trying to do all across the nation is to have a complete count. State and local governments can become partners with the Census Bureau."