Census still recruiting workers

About 700 are working in the 52 counties in this part of the state, said Vic Gentry of the North Platte Census office. Gentry said collectively across the state, 900 workers will be employed by the 2010 Census. For Red Willow County and parts of Frontier County, about 40-50 people are still needed, he said.

A job fair Wednesday at the Heritage Senior Center in McCook drew a number of applicants for census workers, said Linda Hedges, recruiting assistant.

"It's been great, a steady stream," she said, with about 30 applications by mid-afternoon.

Being counted is the only option we have to recapture federal dollars, Gentry said, with Nebraska losing $1,114 per person, per year, in federal funds for every person not counted.

But Nebraska has a good history returning the census questionnaire, ranking number two nationwide in the 2000 census, with 75 percent responding.

The North Platte census office has been busy night and day, Gentry said, with couriers running every day and night crews punching information into computers.

"It's a huge operation," he said. " But it's our only chance to get back federal dollars to our area."

Census reports help return $400 billion to communities, with personal data collected protected under federal law.

Required by the Constitution, a census has been taken by the government every 10 years since 1790 in an effort to count every person living in the United States, both citizen and non-citizen. The questionnaire is 10 questions long and should be returned by April 1.

Those who do not mail the form back may receive a visit from a census taker, who will ask questions from the form.