Importance of accurate 2020 Census count stressed

By ED RUNYAN
runyan@vindy.com
WARREN
The Trumbull County “Complete Count Committee” announced the start of the committee’s year-long work to get ready for the 2020 Census.
The first postcards area residents will get notifying them that it’s time to start completing the census online, over the phone or on paper will be in mid-March 2020, said census specialist Rachel D’Onofrio.
The last stage will be for census workers to visit homes in person for people have not responded yet.
“We would prefer if they could do it earlier, and that’s what we hope with the online operation — that they can get a lot of those folks to fill them out online, via the phone or via paper before you actually a have someone come to your door,” she said during a news conference Tuesday.
The data that comes from the next census will affect funding for communities over the next 10 years, such as local projects, Medicaid and Medicare, transportation and road projects, hospitals, and schools, Warren Mayor Doug Franklin said. It is also the basis for drawing Congressional districts.
Every person who is not counted in the census costs his or her community $1,800 in funding for each of the next 10 years, Franklin said. “We have to live with the results.”
The Census Bureau will hire several hundred people locally to carry out the census. The pay is around $14 per hour and includes part-time and full-time work.
“Trumbull County has over 210,000 folks who live here in the county, and everyone matters,” D’Onofrio said. She described providing census information as easy, safe and “very important.”
It only takes 10 minutes to provide, and it’s safe because no personally identifiable information a person provides will be shared, D’Onofrio said,
“We are only interested in the stats, and not even the President of the Uhited States can see any identifiable information,” she said.
Americans will be asked to provide their birth date so Census officials can make sure people are only counted once, but that information and any other identifiable information will not be used in any way to harm someone, for example someone who is in the country illegally or in trouble with the law, D’Onofrio said.
Trumbull County Commissioner Mauro Cantalmessa said federal and state grants have played a huge role in Trumbull County being able to carry out millions of dollars worth of sewer and water projects in recent years.
The state and federal funding that helps pay for such projects will be affected by the census, he said. “It’s critically important we account for every single individual because we’re counting on every single dollar.”
Members of the committee are Franklin; D’Onofrio; Cantalamessa; Warren Councilman Eddie Colbert; Dr. Lance Grahn, dean of Kent State University at Trumbull; James Dignan, president and CEO of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber; James Wilkins, director of the Warren Trumbull County Public Library; and Nick Coggins, acting director of the Trumbull County Planning Commission.