Census forms hit the mail

Starting May 1, census officials will send workers to those residences whose occupants don’t return their census questionnaires, according to Sandra Webb, who is heading up census preparation efforts for Madison County.

Webb said she’s encouraging people to start watching out for census forms being mailed. Madison County residents should begin receiving census packets this week or next week.

“Don’t throw them away, don’t lay them down,” Webb said. “Go ahead and fill it out, and put it back in the mail and you can be left alone.”

For those who offer no response, workers will make two attempts to obtain household information at these residences before trying to retrieve the information from neighbors.

The questionnaire includes 10 questions, none of which ask for personal identifiers.

Those with physical mailing addresses will be mailed census forms. Those who receive their mail via P.O. boxes must pick up a packet at the library or five other locations around the county. The pick-up sites – called “Be Counted” sites — are the Bread Basket on Hwy. 72 in Colbert, Ila City Hall, Neese Grocery on Hwy. 106, Country Superette on Hwy. 29 North and Paoli Junction at the intersection of Hwy. 98 and Hwy. 172.

No census workers will man these sites, however.

“They’ll be just educational center type boxes that you get different pamphlets,” Webb said.

Census workers weren’t allowed to use post offices as “Be Counted” sites.

“They said it was against the law to use the post office,” Webb said.

Madison County will have just one census help site — the library — which will be manned with census workers for 15 hours a week.

Workers will be available at the library from March 19 to April 19 on Tuesdays (3 p.m. to 8 p.m.), Wednesdays (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and Thursdays (3 p.m. to 8 p.m.) to help residents fill out their census paperwork.

“If they don’t have a census form, if they just go to the library, they’ll help them,’ Webb said. “They’ll make sure they get one, and I feel like that will be the easiest way to do it if they don’t frequent the other places that have the boxes set up.”

Each citizen, however, must mail his own form.