Census panel targets good count for 2000

Scott Reeder

Tuesday, March 9, 1999 | 10:31 a.m.

Local governments in the Las Vegas Valley are taking steps to ensure they are not undercounted in the 2000 census.

"This is a very difficult community to count," said Jeff Hardcastle, a senior planner with Clark County. "In Omaha, Neb., they had a 94-percent rate of return for forms sent out in the 1990 census. Las Vegas, on the other hand, had a 51 percent response rate."

After receiving only about half of their forms, census workers were sent into neighborhoods to try to fill in the gap. Even so, some people were missed, Hardcastle said.

"It is of critical importance that we have as accurate a count as possible because that is what the federal government uses to determine how much federal assistance we receive," said Tom Perrigo, a planning supervisor for the city of Las Vegas.

The Southern Nevada Census 2000 Committee has been formed with representatives from Clark County, area municipalities, Indian tribes and the Census Bureau, Perrigo said.

The group, which will begin meeting later this month, is charged with developing strategies to ensure a more accurate count. The group's first meeting will be 3 p.m. March 23 at Cashman Complex.

The Constitution mandates that the census be used to determine how many representatives each state will have in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"It would have to be a pretty gross undercount for us not to get our third congressional seat," Perrigo said. "But still, it is important that everyone is counted."

Hardcastle said there are specific reasons that the Las Vegas metropolitan area is harder to count.

"We are a very transitory city. People are always moving in and out and a sense of community is not established. Someone may get a census form in the mail and say, 'I'm not going to fill this out. I'm moving away in a couple months.' "

The community's rapid growth also is contributing to the problem of counting people, Hardcastle said.

"The Census Bureau has developed a list of addresses that they plan to send forms to," he said. "The community is growing so fast, that you may have whole neighborhoods get built between the time the government develops its address list and actually sends out its forms."

To combat this problem, Hardcastle said local governments will review the addresses before the forms are mailed.

During the last census, about 29,000 Nevadans, most of them living in Clark County, were not counted. This cost the state about $45 million in federal assistance during the last decade, said Ken Johnson, manager of the Las Vegas Census Office.

The Census Bureau plans to take a different approach than it has in the past in encouraging people to be counted, he said.

"We are going to do a real public relations campaign," Johnson said. "We are going to advertise extensively in Spanish-language media. We plan on having inserts in utility bills and our forms are in both Spanish and English."

Johnson added census workers will survey newer neighborhoods throughout the Las Vegas Valley, looking for signs of new home construction.

"If we see a foundation, we will try to find what the address will be for the home. With 800 homes going up a month in this community, it is sometimes difficult to keep up," he said.

Hardcastle said general distrust of the government also may contribute to people not participating in the census.

"Some people come to Las Vegas because they just want to disappear," he said.