Making sure every resident counts Roosevelt officials work to overcome Census 2000 snafu By bob fleming R
A mailing glitch in the census program prevented the delivery of census forms to residents through the Roosevelt post office earlier this month, Mayor Michael B. Hamilton said.
"It appears as though the census forms were mailed out to Roosevelt residents without their corresponding post office box numbers on them," Hamilton said. "When the census forms reached the post office, they were rejected there and returned to the regional census bureau."
Roosevelt residents receive their mail at the post office on Route 571. There is no mail delivered to homes in the borough.
The census forms were rejected at the post office for improper addressing, a Roosevelt postal employee told the Examiner on Tuesday.
Hamilton, a member of the borough’s Complete Count Census Committee, conferred with fellow committee members Board of Education President Lauralynne Cokeley and Borough Council President John Towle concerning what action could be taken to obtain the census forms and facilitate the count.
"We are considered as being non-compliant by the Census Bureau," Hamilton said. "We had to come up with some means of obtaining the forms, having them completed and returned in a timely fashion."
On Monday, Hamilton announced that a provisional plan was established by the Complete Count Census Committee to obtain the forms from the regional census office.
"Councilman Towle will go to the Eatontown regional census office and will pick up 300 census forms to be brought back for distribution to all Roosevelt residents," Hamilton said. "They will be bulk-mailed with an instructions letter through the Roosevelt post office on Friday."
Residents with post office boxes can expect to receive the forms on Monday or Tuesday, Towle said.
Roosevelt residents who do not have post office boxes will have the special census forms delivered to their homes on Monday or Tuesday, he said.
Borough officials are supplying address labels generated from the Roosevelt taxpayer mailing list to ensure that all residents receive a census form.
According to Cokeley, residents should check the bulletin board at the post office for information regarding the special census forms.
"The school will send home a notice with the children by the end of this week regarding the special census forms, once we have all the necessary information and the process is confirmed," she said.
Hamilton said residents approached him and other borough officials when they failed to receive their census forms in the mail. He noted that after April 1, one out of six Roosevelt residents will be contacted and interviewed at home by a census worker to complete a long form, in addition to the special census form they are being asked to complete this weekend.
"We want residents to know we are taking this action to ensure that the borough is properly accounted for in the census," Hamilton said. "It’s important that each and every resident be counted because those numbers have a direct impact on the funding we receive from the state for our schools and our municipal operations."
For information on the special census count, contact Borough Hall at (609) 448-0539 between 9 a.m and 4 p.m. or Hamilton at (609) 443-5227.