Census Bureau verifying Cape addresses ahead of 2010 count

As the U.S. Census Bureau prepares for next year's national headcount, it is putting a new twist on an old job.

Workers assigned to the task of verifying every address in the United States will be in Cape Girardeau this week, checking addresses and using hand-held GPS devices to verify the bureau's database. The project started Monday using part-time employees hired from within the community, said Hortencia Wilcox, manager of the Census Bureau office in Springfield.

The canvassing will continue until July, she said.

"The community needs to help support this," Wilcox said. "As they go down the street accomplishing this work, we would appreciate the citizens supporting the census effort to get all addresses included in the updates."

For people wary of strangers in their neighborhood, Wilcox said census workers will be easy to spot. Each will have the hand-held computers that record the addresses and compare them to the census database. In addition, she said, each worker will be wearing a Census Bureau badge and carrying a black and white bag with the words "U.S. Census Bureau" in large letters.

The census, taken every 10 years, attempts to find and count every person living in the United States. The counts determine representation in Congress and state legislatures, and an accurate count means local governments have maximum leverage for federal grants and other population-based programs. An inaccurate count can leave an area underrepresented or cause a locality to lose aid to which it would otherwise be entitled.

"The programs that we are using for children, for adults, for the elderly and for community funding that the city of Cape Girardeau needs will be missed if we don't work together on canvassing," Wilcox said.

The actual census will take place in the spring of 2010. Census forms will be mailed in March for return April 1. The bureau follows up the initial mail-in count with visits to addresses that did not return a census form.

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Cape Girardeau, MO