Census Bureau Opens Local Office

The Santa Rosa office of the U.S. Census Bureau opened Thursday morning in preparation of the tally of the nation's population starting in mid- March.

The Santa Rosa office at 1403 Corporate Center Parkway and others that will soon open in Eureka, Fairfield and Redding, will employ up to 5,000 paid, temporary workers.

The Census Bureau will mail a 10-question census form, one of the shortest in history, to all households in the nation in mid-March.

"Our job is to increase the mail response rates by April 1, 2010 and seek cooperation from those who need to be counted by our enumerators or census workers after April 1," said Bryce Velasco, the Santa Rosa Local Census Office manager.

Sandy Louey, media specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau, Northern California, said the census form will be in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Russian. Paid advertising about the census will be in 28 languages and language assistance guides will appear in 59 languages, Louey said.

The Census Bureau expects to count 310 million Americans during the 2010 census, up from 280 million 10 years ago, Louey said.

Census workers will go door-to-door between May and July to residences that have not returned the forms, Louey said. The tally must be completed by Dec. 31, 2010, Louey said.

"Our goal is to count everybody," she said.

Ditas Katague, director of Census 2010 for the Governor's Office of Planning and Research, said the count in California will be challenging because the state faces the prospect of losing a congressional seat because of reduced population.

The fear of government by some state residents and the foreclosure crisis also present challenges to the 2010 census, Katague said.