Some ask, 'Do I count?' Some residents, especially those with P.O. boxes, didn't get Census forms, but they'll get a knock on the door soon.

Sean Adkins
April 11, 2010

If you live in East Prospect, chances are good that you might have heard of the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau form, but have never seen one.

Earlier this year, the officer in charge of the borough's post office sent back the forms intended for most of the area's residents because federal officials had affixed street addresses instead of P.O. box numbers to the questionnaires.

East Prospect doesn't employ mail carriers, and few homes have mailboxes, said Ruth Stephens, the officer in charge.

Of the borough's 400 post office boxes, about 290 are rented, she said.

East Prospect has a population of 758, according to the 2008 census population estimates.

"We don't mail to post office boxes," said Pamela Golden, a Census bureau spokeswoman. "The census is both a housing and a population count. With a post office box, you could live in one place and then you can move and take that same post office box with you and that does not tell the census anything about the housing count. We need the physical location of the house to mail the form."

As a result, as of Friday, only 15 percent of the census forms sent to East Prospect have made their way back to the federal government - the lowest return rate in York County, according to the U.S. Census.

Residents who live in the borough but have Wrightsville or York addresses might have received forms.

In the county, 85 percent of households in New Salem had returned the form, and 83 percent in West Manchester and North Codorus townships had done so.

York County's current rate of return is 76 percent. The Census Bureau is updating the participation rates as it receives completed forms.

Esther Clark, office administrator for North Codorus Township, said she credits a small article that ran in the community's newsletter reminding residents to fill out the census form for the municipality's census success.

"It's possible that (the article) pushed people to fill out the form," she said. "83 percent. I'm thrilled. It means a lot to me because its shows that the residents do care."

Residents have until April 16 to drop the form in the mail before census workers start knocking on doors in search of completed forms, Golden said.

And, if you live in East Prospect, you can expect someone with a census badge and a clipboard to soon visit your home.

The government spends about $57 per household to send a census worker to a home, Golden said.

So, going by the 2000 U.S. Census count of 258 households in East Prospect, the government will spend roughly $14,700 to bring the 10-question survey to the borough.

"This has caused a fiasco for the residents," said Donald Barshinger, East Prospect's secretary. "Why can't the census get their act together and recognize P.O. boxes?"

Barshinger said he contacted a census official to tell him that most of East Prospect's residents have P.O. boxes, and was told in return that forms are deliverable only to street addresses.

Later, the same census official told Barshinger that census workers would be going door-to-door to collect the surveys.

"You have two federal entities - the U.S. Post Office and the census," he said. "Why can't they work together?"

Amber Kelley, an East Prospect resident and the owner of Be Envy'd in the borough, said she learned the she would not be getting a census form from a sign at the community post office.

"I would have liked to have gotten one to just have a voice," she said.