By Mike Bush
Editor
575magazine.com
See Sharon Bell - Michael Vickers Interview Video
ROSWELL — City Planner Michael Vickers is urging every Roswell resident to make sure he or she is counted for the 2010 Census so the city will reach 50,000 population.
Population determines how $400 billion in government funds are allocated, Vickers said. Communities of less than 50,000 must compete with other government entities for limited funds.
“The magical 50,000 figure that everybody talks about in Roswell is so important because we will directly qualify for those funds,” Vickers said. “So no longer will we be competing with Tatum and Eunice and Hobbs and smaller communities. We’ll actually have money allocated for us to use for capital infrastructure projects, capital outlay projects. That’s roads, that’s schools, that’s hospitals, that’s infrastructure.
“So all the great services the city offers that we take advantage of … that is what is going to be benefited in this Census,” he added. “So everybody’s got to fill it out. We’ve got to get that count. It’s so crucial that we get to that 50,000 mark.”
He noted some people refuse to participate in the Census because of fears the government will misuse personal information.
But by law, no one has access to Census information until 72 years after it’s collected, he said.
President Harry Truman tried to get access to Census information because he wanted to find out the makeup of the neighborhood around the White House and who was there.
“He tried to get the information and the Census said, ‘No, I’m sorry, you can’t get that information,’” Vickers said. “Even the Patriot Act does not allow any governmental entity of any kind to get that information. So it’s very safe, it’s very protected.”
Census workers who reveal information they have gathered face “very steep and heavy fines and/or jail time for giving that information out,” he added.
He also noted the 2010 Census form has only 10 questions, “so really it’s a noninvasive form. The most information you’re going to give is your name.”
Census forms were shortened because the Census Bureau realized many people weren’t responding to the Census due to the amount of time it was taking to fill out long questionnaires.
The official Census day is April 1, he said. Those who don’t send forms back will be contacted in person and forms will be collected through May 1, and perhaps through the end of May.
Once the data is collected, it must be compiled and sent to the president by Dec. 31.
“Then, next year about this time we’ll start finding out where we actually came in, what the numbers were, and then they’ll make their determinations on who gets what chunk of money and where it goes,” Vickers said.
Since coming to work for the city in August 2009, Vickers said he has spent a lot of his time working on the Census. The Census Committee actually began work a year and a half ago, he added.
“It’s been a long but worthwhile journey,” he said. “I would say I spend at least a quarter of my week working on Census stuff, and as we’ve gotten closer I’ve worked more and more, just going to various places talking about it, explaining what it is and how important it is.”
Reaching 50,000 not only would bring more federal money into Roswell, it also will bring businesses here, Vickers said.
“I can’t stress that enough,” he said. “People want Dillard’s, people want Olive Garden, people want these retailers, and retailers of that size don’t consider cities that are not MSAs.”
In the 2000 Census, 45,293 people were counted. But that was from only a 72 percent response, Vickers said, so Roswell was really over 50,000 in 2000.
Since then, “we’ve had lots of babies born, people are moving in here,” he said. “This is one of the No. 1 retirement communities in the country. So I have no doubt in my mind that we’re over the 50,000 mark. Anybody can drive own Main Street at lunchtime and say, ‘Hey, there have got to be 50,000 people here.’”
Vickers said he wants all people in Roswell to help get the word out about the importance of the Census.
“It does come from the community,” he said. “It’s one of those things that we need the community to support.”