(Spirit Lake)– The 2020 Census continues and a lack of return from Dickinson county is causing alarm among many. In fact, Maureen Schriner, a Media Specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau for Minnesota and Iowa, tells KUOO news Dickinson county currently is ranked last when it comes to the rate of return…
“The highest responding counties in Iowa are Sioux and Lyon counties, Grudy county, Bremer county. They’re all above 74 percent. And then Dickinson, you are the lowest county at just about 45 percent, so that means more than half of the households need to respond.”
Schriner says the area has a lot riding on the census, which among other things helps determine the level of federal funding the area receives…
“And one of the examples of that is the CARES money that was just sent out by Congress that was then distributed to state and local governments based on census data. So you want to make sure that you’re getting that fair share. The other thing that you want to make sure you do is you want to make sure that you are getting your fair share of representation in Congress and also the Iowa Legislature.”
Schriner says census forms were delivered to homes some time ago…
“If you did not get a packet dropped off at your house you can still respond to the census, and that’s by going to 2020census.gov. The most important thing is for people who own seasonal homes, lake cabins, second homes, you need to complete the 2020 census for that address. And when you fill out the census for that address you’ll get a question how many people at this address usually live and sleep here? And what that means is on a year-round basis are you, is anyone there the majority of the time. For most seasonal and lake cabin homeowners the answer is no, so you would put the answer to that question as zero, put that no one usually lives in that home. And then a question will pop that will say is this a second home, is it a season home, then you can explain what it is. But you do need to respond, because if you don’t respond a census taker will come out and be knocking on your door.”
Schriner says that will start happening August 11th.
