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OPINIONS
Editorial: Huntington needs to count every person in 2010 census
Marshall University students could be the key to HuntingtonÕs remaining above 50,000 in population when the next census is taken in 2010.
Purchase this photoEvery person counts, and on April 1, 2010, every person will need to be counted. It's something Huntington officials should be thinking about and planning for.
On April 1, 2010, the next census will count the number of people in every governmental subdivision in the United States. Its main purpose is to count the inhabitants of every state for the purpose of determining apportionment of the U.S. House of Representatives, but the census has many uses on the local level, too.
Among them is determining new boundary lines for districts in state and local legislative bodies. And in Huntington, it is a measure of whether the city drops below the important psychological distinction of being a community of 50,000 people.
There is concern that falling below the 50,000 level would result in a significant loss of federal grant money to the city, particularly from the community development block grant program, but, fortunately, that might not be the case.
According to Charles Holley, the city's development director, Huntington's CDBG money comes from its being an entitlement community, meaning it has a population greater than 50,000 or it is the central city of a metropolitan statistical area. Huntington is the central city of the Huntington-Ashland MSA.
That does not mean the city's CDBG allocation will remain at its current level. Funding has declined for several reasons, including the fact there are more cities that qualify for it now.
Beyond federal grants, there are other reasons to be sure everyone is counted in 2010. Among them is the psychological factor of what would happen if Huntington were found to have fewer than 50,000 residents. Huntington's population peaked at 86,353 in 1950. The last census, in 2000, counted 51,475 residents. The most recent estimate placed the city's population at 48,982 as of July 1, 2007.
Two things should be noted about the estimates. One is that the estimates are based on births, deaths, migration and other data that has been available since the most recent census. The farther out you get from a census, the less accurate the estimates are likely to be. The other is that the census is based on the actual population on April 1 the year it is taken. The annual estimates are based on July 1. Thus, the census was taken when Marshall University was in session and students were in town. The estimates are based on times when most students have left town.
If Huntington wants to remain above the 50,000 level for psychological or practical reasons, it will need to count everyone on April 1, 2010. That means counting every Marshall student who is willing to list Huntington as his or her address. In fact, Marshall students probably kept Huntington above 50,000 in 2000. That year, the census counted 2,315 people between the ages of 18 and 23 who lived in the neighborhood that includes Marshall's campus and neighboring streets.
And it means finding and counting every homeless person who lives in town and everyone who lives in a nursing home or similar facility. If a person is in Huntington, that person must be counted.
Morgantown had an aggressive program in 2000 to count every person, including inmates at a federal prison. Huntington will need a similarly aggressive program in 2010. It's something the mayor and city council members who are sworn into office early next year should begin planning for immediately.
It's possible that the city's population bottomed out in 2000. That's not to say that it has grown by a great amount, but it's possible that if everyone is counted, the next census will find more than 51,475 people in the city. And -- who knows -- Huntington could reclaim the spot it once had as West Virginia's largest city.
But everyone has to be counted.
