Mayor Moore has announced the formation of the City of Elkhart's Complete Count Committee, which will promote the 2010 Census through a locally-based publicity effort and targeted outreach campaign. Eric Trotter, Senior Planner in the Department of Planning and Zoning, has been appointed committee chair and liaison to the U. S. Census Bureau.
"We are excited to work with Census officials to carry out this important duty," Mayor Moore said. "The committee's primary focus is to increase awareness of the upcoming census and ensure that every resident is counted. We are mobilizing our efforts early so that our community can be accurately counted in 2010 and federal dollars can be distributed accordingly in the future."
The federal government allocates more than $300 billion annually to states and communities based partly on census data collected every 10 years. The data also determines boundaries for political office districts and plays a key role in the placement of community facilities such as schools, hospitals, retail stores, and housing developments.
Local households will begin receiving Census questionnaires in March 2010. In the coming weeks and months of this year, however, residents will learn much more about the Census process and why their participation is important. The City's Complete Count Committee plans to promote the census through public meetings, community festivals, neighborhood associations, notices in utility bills, and the news media.
"We're a diverse, growing community, and a thorough Complete Count effort will ultimately give us a clearer picture of who's living here and how the City can best serve them," Trotter said.
