It seems that Boardman doesn't count

By Denise Dick

BOARDMAN — Carolyn and Thomas Nardella moved into their Presidential Estates home three years ago, but according to a recent U.S. Census map, they don’t count.

Neither does Rose Marie Balmetti, another Presidential Estates resident.

Balmetti was bewildered to learn that the Census Bureau doesn’t know she lives in Boardman.

“They probably know everything else,” the 17-year resident said.

The map sent to the township by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Boundary and Annexation Survey leaves out areas south of U.S. Route 224 between Southern Boulevard and Yellow Creek and between the area around Mill Creek Park.

This area includes the Presidential Estates, Ivy Hills, Huntington Woods and Angliline Estates neighborhoods.

Even Boardman Park was left out.

Such an oversight would mean that Target, Barnes & Noble and Old Navy must be in the Shops at Someplace Else, rather than The Shops at Boardman Park.

“A ton of people live there,” said Jason Loree, township administrator — including his parents.

“I don’t know what happened,” he added. “I’m trying to get it corrected.”

Laura Waggoner, Census boundary and annexation survey project manager, said that it’s up to individual townships to report boundary changes to the agency.

It’s not a new problem: The boundaries also match those on record from the 2000 Census.

“We sent out an advance response to them last year, asking if they wanted to review their boundaries, and they said no,” Waggoner said.

Unless a community reports its boundary changes to the Census, the bureau can’t change it.

To correct the problem, the township must research when its boundaries changed, record the resolutions that approved those changes and report them to the boundary and annexation survey office.

According to the U.S. Census Web site, the township’s 2000 population was 37,215, down from 38,596 in 1990.

Loree said the recent population number provided by the Census was also 38,000.

Carolyn Nardella was surprised to hear that so much of the township was left out.

“We pay taxes too,” she chuckled.

But what most shocked her was the omission of Boardman Township Park.

“It’s such an asset,” she said.

denise_dick@vindy.com