Orland supports census effort

Orland has pledged to assist with the U.S. Census by offering information on it at City Hall.

Council members heard from census representative Kamara Licea last week who said the government is still hiring people to assist with the project in this area with some work extending through August or September.

The council also approved a 2010 Census Partner Proclamation on March 1 indicating its support for the census by encouraging the community to participate and disseminating information about it.

It also pledged to support census takers in their efforts to get an accurate population count and collaborate with community groups to get it completed, city officials said.

Licea added "Census Day" is April 1, but a lot of work is going on in March.

The U.S. Postal Service is to deliver a 10-question census survey to residents from March 15 to 17, she said, and then households or individuals will have six weeks to send it back.

All information is confidential, Licea said, and the survey is easy to do.

Back in 2000, Orland had a population of 6,281 residents with 1,094 being of student age, she said, based on figures from the Census Bureau's 2010 Web site.

Completing the census is important because it provides the federal government with population data that can help cities, counties and other local government agencies receive funding, officials said. Some $300 billion in federal dollars was mentioned on a census bureau fact sheet along with even more in state funds.

Census workers will start going door-to-door around May 1 to look for people who have not responded to the mailed forms, Licea said.

They also are working with leaders in the Hispanic community, homeless shelters and other groups to get information out to those populations so they can be counted as well, officials said.

Besides helping with funding, census figures are used to draw federal, state and local legislative districts, for forecasting future transportation needs, housing needs, creating maps, for facilitating scientific research and many more things.

Anyone interested in a census job should call 1-866-861-2010.

For more census information, visit factfinder.census.gov.

Contact Rick Longley at 934-6800 or rlongley@tcnpress.com.