Pocomoke; Census tour makes mark on Shore

As the U.S. Census Bureau prepares to tally every person in the country this fall, officials are making sure people are prepared to be counted.

But -- in the interest of counting -- the four jazz musicians, three city officials and dozens of Pocomoke City residents who visited the 2010 Census Road Tour as it stopped at the Chamber of Commerce on Market Street as part of a Lower Shore loop, will know exactly what to do when they get the questionnaire in the mail next month.


"I learned that they are going to be sending out a form of 10 easy questions and I will be sending it back," said Pocomoke City resident Sage Allen. And since she is the head of her household, she added, it's her job to fill out the questionnaire.


Pocomoke is one of 80 stops the Philadelphia regional campaign -- one of 13 across the country -- will make to generate awareness for the once-a-decade national tally of the population, said Jackie Lisjuan, a Eastern Shore representative of the Census Bureau.
"It's important to remember that everyone in the U.S. counts," Lisjuan said. "Whether they are undocumented, working, homeless or a child."


The census, last taken in 2000, helps in determining where the federal government needs to spend the roughly $400 million it distributes to communities every year for schools, hospitals, roads and other infrastructure.


That money is very important to local governments like the one in Pocomoke, said City Manager Russell Blake.
"I've been around long enough in government to know how important the census is," Blake said. "I use the numbers all the time."


Population numbers are often used locally when applying for grants and loans to enhance city services, he said.
The Census Road Tour also stopped in Crisfield and Salisbury on Wednesday, its only stops on the Lower Shore. And had Pocomoke not offered to host the bus, Denise Wagner, head of the Chamber of Commerce, said the tour might not have come to southern Delmarva at all.


"We were the first group that agreed on the Shore," Wagner said.
Hosting the tour -- and lining live entertainment from the Pocomoke High School girls' choir and local band, The Larks -- is part of a few things the Chamber is doing to raise awareness about the national count, Wagner said. Throughout April, the organization will have a representative from the census on hand to answer any questions residents have about the form. "People don't understand that's how our federal dollars come in to play," Wagner said. "I really want to draw attention to Pocomoke City. There are so many treasures here."

VIA: DelmarvaNow.com