CAPE GROWS BY 77 IN DECADE OF 1980S, SAYS FINAL CENSUS REPORT

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The good news for Cape Girardeau officials Thursday was that the city's population during the 1980s didn't decline as initial U.S. Census Bureau figures showed.

The bad news is that the increase was only 77 persons, and city officials still contend the bureau has failed to count nearly 500 housing units.

Other area cities also showed slight population growth.

Officials in those cities generally echoed Cape Girardeau's contention that the final counts still fell far short of expectations.

The bureau reported that Cape Girardeau's population in 1990 was 34,438, up 77 from the 1980 figure and 271 from last summer's preliminary count.

Cape Girardeau County's population increased from 58,837 in 1980 to 61,633 in the final 1990 count, which is up 254 from the preliminary figure last year.

Melvin Gateley, who worked last year as Cape Girardeau's liaison with the Census Bureau, said Thursday he welcomed the population adjustment.

"We're delighted that we have this positive number," Gateley said. "We're in the positive column now and it's indicative of the good things going on in our city.

"It presents a great challenge for us to work diligently toward the future."

But City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said he still believes the Census Bureau has failed to count numerous housing units in the city.

"To me, I think they have missed the housing units," Fischer said. "This 200-plus that we've picked up since the preliminary count could very easily have been from the `Were You Counted' campaign where people who felt they weren't counted called the bureau's (toll-free telephone) numbers."

Fischer said Gateley last year added to the bureau's 1980 housing count the number of housing construction permits issued in the decade and subtracted the number of units that were demolished to come up with 15,111 housing units, nearly 500 more than the bureau's 1990 preliminary count.

The number of housing units is an important factor to determine the accuracy of the census' population counts, because if housing units aren't accounted for, it's likely their occupants also weren't counted, the city manager said.

Fischer said Gateley appealed the housing unit count to census officials in St. Louis, but a census re-count of 92 city census blocks last fall added only 27 units to the preliminary count.

"He told them, as an example, of a 60-some unit apartment building on West End Boulevard. that the census hadn't recorded," Fischer said. "He asked the bureau supervisor about that building and the almost 500 housing units difference between our figures and theirs."

Fischer said Gateley still is volunteering his time to try and convince the Census Bureau to adjust the housing unit count and recalculate the population figure.

But Miguel Rivera, spokesperson for the bureau's Washington, D.C., public affairs office, said the only way cities can appeal the final counts is through the courts.

He said the final census figures could be adjusted only if a sufficient "margin of error" is found in the census effort nationwide to justify the changes. Rivera said it's up to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to determine if any adjustments will be made.

But Gateley said census officials he's talked to have said the city can continue to try to resolve the housing count discrepancy through the census' "Count Question Resolution Unit" program.

According to the cover letter sent to cities nationwide by Barbara Everitt Bryant, director of the Census Bureau, some corrections might be made before July.

Gateley said he will work with a census official in Jefferson City in an effort to iron out the housing count differences.

"Since we're on a positive note, I am going to see if we can't resolve some of these differences," he said.

Elsewhere, other Southeast Missouri cities saw preliminary population counts grow as the census finished processing census forms late last year.

In Scott City, the final census figure stood at 4,292, an increase of 646 over preliminary figures issued in December. But, at 4,292, the city still lost 338 residents from 1980, said Mayor Shirley Young.

Despite the overall decline from 1980, Young said she was pleased with the increase from the preliminary counts.

"At least this number is closer to the 5,000 I expected," she said. "I knew the 3,646 figure was wrong. I'm certainly happier with these figures than I was with the preliminary figures."

Thirty-five census blocks were recounted by the Census Bureau as a result of Scott City's challenge of the preliminary figures.

Final figures indicate Perryville's population is only 46 more than the preliminary figures released in December.

City Administrator Craig Lindsley called the final count of 6,933 "not at all an accurate depiction of the population of the city of Perryville."

Lindsley said he believes the city's population is between 8,000 and 8,500. In 1980, the census put the city's population at 7,343.

Lindsley said that, based on the number of businesses and people who have moved into the city in the past 10 years, he believes the population should be at least 1,000 more than the 1980 figure. "It's very disappointing," he added.

Final figures for Marble Hill show only a four-person gain from preliminary figures, for a total population of 1,447. The city's population in 1980 was 1,466.

Chaffee's population decreased from 3,241 in 1980 to 3,059 in 1990, an increase of 548 from the preliminary census count in December. Jackson saw its preliminary population figure of 9,261 decrease by five people in the final count. Jackson's population in 1980 was 7,827.