JACKSON CENTER — A presentation encouraging the village officials to get the word out about participating in the 2020 Decennial Census, a national survey which takes place every 10 years, was presented during the Jackson Center Village Council meeting Monday, June 24.
Mark S. Boyd, partnership dpecialist with the Philadelphia Regional Census Center, presented a brief talk on the merits of the census and how village officials can educate and encourage residents to participate in the upcoming evaluation by implementing a Complete Count Committee or CCC.
Village Administrator Bruce Metz recently attended a meeting in Sidney concerning the upcoming census and afterward invited Boyd who was the key speaker to do a condensed version of his presentation for the JC village council.
“I would like to thank Bruce and Mayor Klopfenstein for inviting me to come share some information that I hope will help educate and encourage the public thus improving proficiency and cooperation in Jackson Center,” Boyd said. “The census began in 1790 and was mandated by the US Constitution to help the government serve its people; our goal is to inform local elected officials and other leaders so they in turn can help their constituents understand how the census will benefit them.
“We hope that by providing the essential information about the census and instructions about how easy it is to participate that it will assist them in completing their census forms in a timely and consistent manner. This year is different in that we can now do it online making it much easier than ever before. Eliminating the mountains of paperwork helps make the process more efficient and lowers the cost and man-hours required to get the task accomplished. The village will be receiving signs with contact information to post around town to help get the word out,” Boyd said.
Boyd noted the census was first used to determine representational boundaries for the US Republic alone but now there are three main objectives the information collected will be used for:
• Allocation of government funding
• Future planning
• Determining representation in the U.S. Congress.
Boyd pointed out the importance of census participation and how far the information gathered goes in serving the public; he said it affects the lives of the average citizen in countless ways.
“Most folks do not realize how important their participation is and how much it affects their lives. Every year there is approximately $675 billion dollars in government funding available that is allocated for nearly everything imaginable from grant-funding for infrastructure like roads and bridges to education, healthcare, and a long, long list of other things,” said Boyd. “Distribution of these funds is determined in part by statistics garnered from census reports, so it’s in everyone’s best interest to participate in the census to insure they benefit from the information assembled.” Boyd said. He also pointed out the information gathered for the reports is strictly confidential and used for census-related purposes only.
“The information gathered by the census is classified and may not be used for any other purpose than what it was designed for. Participation is safe, easy and confidential. Anyone having questions may visit: www.cencus.com for more information on how and why the census works and why it is so important to participate,” Boyd said, also noting there are a number of temporary jobs available to help with the census and encouraged local residents to get involved.
“No one knows a village like Jackson Center better than the people living there and the Census Bureau is looking for people to help out with collecting data. Job’s typically pay $12-15 dollars per hour and more info can be found at www.usa.job.gov concerning how to apply,” Boyd said.
After the presentation, Mayor Scott Klopfenstein thanked Boyd for coming and assured him council will implement a CCC and work to get the word out on how important the census is and encourage the residents of Jackson Center to participate.
In new business council passed three ordinances with the first amending the agreement with North Central Ohio Solid Waste Management to allow for the implementation of new recycling carts and extend the current contract for an extra two years. Metz said the new carts will replace the tubs currently in use and will be delivered between July 22-25 and residents will begin using them on Aug. 13.
Next council approved an ordinance setting the new rates for refuse removal. Metz said rate will go up $.43 cents a month to $3.52 per household per month and will increase by .03 percent per year through 2023.
“We’ll be good for the next five years; the trash pickup will be every week and recycling every other week as before but we’ll be using the new carts instead of the tubs. Residents are encouraged to place the old tubs at the curbside on Aug. 13 when the new carts go into use,” Metz said.
Council also passed an ordinance moving $481 that was left over from a prior waterline project and put the money in the funds that will be used to install the new gas meter at the wastewater treatment plant.
Lastly council passed a resolution supporting the Shelby County Complete Count Committee (CCC) to support the 2020 Decennial Census. The committee will work on ways to make the census process go smoothly in Jackson Center and will work with the census bureau on ways to get people educated and motivated for better participation.
Before going into an executive session for the purpose of discussing pending litigation Metz reported on a variety of ongoing projects around the village and reported on the record rainfall and the effects it had on the village. Metz noted the detention basins did their job and things would have been much worse had it not been for the planning and implementation of the basins located at several places around the village.
“On May 16 and 17 we had 5.75 inches of rain in 4 hours, Roughly speaking that is a 1,000 year rain event when compared to known statistics. Hopefully we’ll never see anything like that again in our lifetimes, it was terrible. The good news is it could have been much worse, we could have been underwater like a lot of other cities affected by the same storm,” said Metz. “Between 2014 and 2019 (present) our detention basins have held back over 19.9 million gallons of water. That’s nearly 20 million gallons of flood water that could have been lying in our streets and homes; so even though we experienced some unexpected problems, the basins are working and we need to plan ahead as we grow to make sure we can keep up with the water issues should they occur again.”
Klopfenstein said the village has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to build and maintain the flood basins but it was worth it.
“We must continue to prepare and plan ahead as we have in the past; it’s no accident things went as well as they did during the last flood and I commend our current administrator and those before him that made sure we were ready when the water came up,” Klopfenstein said.
He also thanked the village staff and everyone else that pulled together in the hours of need.
Metz thanked the residents who work at Honda of America for their help in cleaning up the recycling dumpsters and surrounding area.
“I want to thank everyone who came from Honda to clean up, they did a fantastic job and I commend their efforts and community spirit,” Metz said.
Metz also mentioned that the village cleanup was a success and thanked those who helped make it so.
“We had as much or a little more trash than usual and I appreciate everyone who helped out. I will note we had a lot of out-of-towners who brought trash from not only outside the village but outside Shelby County as well,” said Metz. “We put up with it again this year but it will not be tolerated next year. Starting next year we will require everyone wanting to dump trash at the village cleanup present a copy of their village electric bill and a photo I.D. before dumping their trash. It’s just not fair to our residents who foot the bill and there are plenty of other township and county cleanups out there where folks can get rid of their unwanted items.”
JC Police Chief Chuck Wirick confirmed the police department will have someone present to check water bills and identification to make sure things run smoothly.
Council’s nexy meeting will be held on July 8, 2019 in the council chambers.
