2010 U.S. Census forms to be sent out to Athens County residents in March

The 2010 U.S. Census Count is drawing closer, and many area residents may have questions about when they will receive their forms, how they should fill them out and what they should do if they have any questions.

Here is some information to help answer some of these questions and alleviate any concerns:

• Census forms will be mailed out to most Athens County residents between March 15-19.
• Residents of the Glouster and Coolville areas who pick up their mail at the post office and do not have mail delivered to their homes will receive Census questionnaires at their front doors beginning on March 1. This is only for these two areas of the county.
• Each Census packet will come with a prepaid envelope for the forms to be placed in and mailed back in to the Census Bureau.
• Census Bureau representatives will only visit the homes of people who do not fill out the forms and mail them back in.
• Each person living in the household on April 1 should be counted on the form. Each form should have enough spaces for six people. Additional forms or replacement forms can be requested by calling the Telephone Questionnaire Assistance Center at 1-866-872-6868, or by visiting one of the seven Question Assistance Centers located in Athens County.
• The seven Question Assistance Centers in Athens County will be located at Athens City Hall, Ohio University’s Baker University Center, the Nelsonville Public Library, the Albany Public Library, The Work Station in The Plains, The Glouster Public Library and the Coolville Public Library.
• The Question Assistance Centers will have staff members working in them between 10-15 hours per week to answer questions from local residents. The centers in Glouster and Coolville will open on Feb. 26, while the other five centers will open on March 19. When no staff members are working at the centers, extra forms and informational materials will be available for area residents to pick up.
• Athens County will also have two Be Counted Sites, which are locations that are not staffed but have extra forms and informational materials. These Be Counted Sites will be at the Amesville Elementary School in Amesville and the Federal Hocking Middle School in Stewart.
• All of the locations with extra forms will have forms printed in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Russian.
• Each form only takes a few minutes to fill out. The Census Bureau no longer sends out both short and long forms, there are only short forms.
• All responses are kept confidential.
• All homeless people in the county should be counted. If you are homeless and are not counted by April 1, contact either the local Question Assistance Centers or the Telephone Question Assistance Center at 1-866-872-6868.
• All people living in Athens County who are not U.S. citizens should also be counted.
• All college students living in Athens County should be counted as Athens County residents, even if they live with their parents or in another location in the summer and at the holidays.
• It is extremely important that all Athens County residents are counted.

For more information on the 2010 Census Count in Athens County, call Nick Claussen, community relations coordinator for Athens County Job and Family Services, at 797-2523 or log onto http://2010.census.gov.