The 2010 U.S. Census will begin the decade’s population count in about two weeks, and the city of Charleston is determined to have the population count as accurate as possible.

City Planner Steve Pamperin has been working to assist the Census Bureau by collecting the addresses of all Charleston residents using a computer program called the Geographic Information System.

“What we have done with our GIS is identified, basically, every residential building in Charleston and have put that on our own local data base,” Pamperin said.

With each building collected, the cityidentified where all of the apartments are located.

“We can easily tell, block by block, how many apartments should be in each block and how many units should be in each apartment, which allows us to work side by side with the Census Bureau to make sure the count is as accurate as it can be,” Pamperin said.

City officials plan to use this data to check the numbers collected by the Census Bureau in the next few weeks to make sure no block of the city was overlooked, Pamperin said.

“If the numbers do not quite match up with our maps, we will certainly be able to work with the bureau to make sure those blocks are counted,” Pamperin said.

The GIS will help citywide, including the off-campus students’ residences.

“When it comes to Eastern students, we will be able to tell where off-campus houses and residents are located,” Pamperin said. “If there is a 30-unit apartment on a certain block, we can make sure those numbers match up.”

Cooperation between the city, Eastern and the Census Bureau is necessary to obtain a proper count, Pamperin said.

In order to have a correct population count, it is imperative that the census forms are filled out correctly, Pamperin said.

Each residence will receive one form.

It is important for students to know that the form should be filled out for every person living in the residence, not just the person filling out the form.

Stephen Reinhart, from the U.S. Census Bureau based in Champaign, said only about 65 percent of all forms sent out are returned to the Census Bureau.

“The remaining 35 percent will have to be hand counted by going door to door,” Reinhart said.

The Census Bureau based in Champaign covers 14 counties in Illinois, stretching south from Kankakee to Greenup, and east from Bloomington to the Indiana border.

Once the deadline has passed for the mail-in forms, the Census Bureau will hire additional people to continue with the count.

“The amount of people hired in an area is directly linked to the amount of forms returned in from that area, the more residences that will still need to be counted the more people will be hired in that town,” Reinhart said.

“Charleston is definitely a partner with the Census Bureau, and hopefully between the two of us we can get an accurate count,” Pamperin said.

Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7942 or at kzyskowski@eiu.edu