LAKE COUNTY — The U.S. Census Bureau is staffing more than 30,000 questionnaire assistance centers around the nation, where people can get help with their forms in multiple languages. Local centers are located at St. Peter”s Church, 4085 Main St. in Kelseyville; and at Cobb Area County Water District, 16595 Highway 175 in Cobb. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The centers are scheduled to operate through April 19. The locations are temporary and may change, depending on levels of local assistance needed by residents. Up-to-date center locations can be found at www.2010census.gov.
Census officials hope that people will fill out their 10-question form and mail it back as soon as possible, saving millions of taxpayer dollars.
It costs the government just the price of a postage stamp when a household mails back the 10-question form, which should take just 10 minutes to complete. It costs the Census Bureau $57 to send a census taker door-to-door to follow up with each household that fails to respond.
Starting March 22, the Census Bureau will be publishing mail-participation rates, showing the percent of the population that have mailed back their 2010 Census forms daily at www.2010census.gov. This map-based feature and widget application allows communities to track how well they are responding by mail and how they compare to neighboring cities, counties or states.
Mandated by the U.S. Constitution, the census takes place on April 1, 2010. Census data determine boundaries for state and local legislative and congressional districts. More than $400 billion in federal funds are distributed annually based on census data to pay for local programs and services such as free lunch for low-income students, vocational training, road construction and emergency services.
For more information about language assistance guides and translations of the form, which are available in 59 languages, visit www.2010census.gov. Telephone assistance in filling out the form is available in Spanish 1-866-928-2010, Chinese 1-866-935-2010, Vietnamese 1-866-945-2010, Korean 1-866-955-2010 and Russian 1-866-965-2010 in addition to English 1-866-872-6868. Deaf and hard-of-hearing persons can call the TDD number: 1-866-783-2010.
The U.S. Constitution requires that everyone living in the United States be counted every 10 years. All census information collected, including addresses, is confidential and protected by law. By law, the Census Bureau can”t share respondents” answers with any government agency such as the FBI, the IRS, welfare and immigration. No court of law or law enforcement agency can find out respondents” answers. All Census Bureau employees ? including temporary employees ? take an oath for life to keep census information confidential. Any violation of that oath is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and five years in prison.
Editor”s note: News releases, reports and data tables are available on the Census Bureau”s home page. Go to http://www.2010census.gov/ and click on “Press & Media.”The Census Bureau”s Newsroom is at http://www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/news/.
