(Spirit Lake)– Dickinson county continues to be last in the state when it comes to the rate of return for the 2020 census. Angela Kofoot has been involved in efforts over the past month or so to try to change that. She says they have been able to move the needle atleast a little…
“Our response rates are up about, almost three percent so that’s worth about 20 million dollars to Dickinson county over the next 10 years. That tells you how important every single person is that’s responding to the census.”
Kofoot says lakeshore communities continue to lag the most in response rates…
“Wahpeton, Okoboji, Arnolds Park are our bottom three and we’re pretty sure it’s because a lot of those are second homes and the census did not do a really good job of advertising how those people were supposed to respond.”
Kofoot says that’s relatively easy to do…
“When they fill out the census for their secondary home they will just put a zero as far as the number of people residing there April 1st. We still need that information.”
You can also complete the census online at 2020Census.gov or by calling 844-330-2020 seven days a week between 6:00 am and 1:00 am.
Kofoot adds workers with the Census Bureau are now making the rounds…
“They’re being pretty successful. I think a lot of lake homes are still occupied. There are probably almost a dozen people walking around door to door, so like we’ve told you in the past if you don’t fill out the census they will be knocking on your door. That’s a good way to prevent that.”
As of now September 30th is the deadline for completing the census. Efforts to extend that national deadline are currently held up in court.
