By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS ó Two U.S. Census Bureau community organizers asked Kannapolis City Council for help convincing Cabarrus County officials to get involved with the 2010 census.
Cabarrus is the only one of four surrounding counties that hasn’t created a special committee to promote the census, Lisa Crawford told Kannapolis leaders Monday night.
“I really need your help in helping to encourage the county to get involved and put together that Complete Count Committee,” Crawford said.
She asked council members to contact Cabarrus County Manager John Day and convince him.
That request brought laughter from the council. The city has had an antagonistic relationship with the county at times.
Crawford and Monica Wissbaum oversee U.S. census efforts in Cabarrus, Rowan, Iredell and Mecklenburg counties. The three other counties have committees, and some have been meeting for months, the women said.
Day said the cities of Kannapolis and Concord should create their own committees.
“I told the organizer I thought it would be more effective for each of the cities to organize their own efforts than for the county to do it on their behalf,” Day said in an email to the Post. “That’s especially true in Kannapolis, which sits in two counties.”
Kannapolis straddles the Rowan-Cabarrus border.
The census organizers have not approached the Cabarrus County commissioners, who appoint committees, said Jay White, chairman of the commissioners.
“If this is truly an issue they are concerned about, why haven’t they contacted the commissioners directly?” he said.
Commissioners discussed the census several months ago and asked staff to look into it, White said.
They haven’t heard back from staff, he said.
The only communication White said he’s had from the Census Bureau was a woman who called recently to say that she’d sent literature to him at the wrong address, twice.
“I would love to hear from these ladies and hear their concerns,” White said.
If commissioners do not appoint a census committee, the city will consider creating its own, Mayor Bob Misenheimer said.
“We will certainly try to pursue that,” he said.
Kannapolis had a 66-percent response rate during the 2000 census, Crawford said. The national average was 67 percent.
Counties with Complete Count Committees have higher response rates, she said.
Also Monday night, the city agreed to pursue federal stimulus funds to help pay for electrical system improvements to the Second Creek Pump Station Project.
The project has been approved for low interest loans in conjunction with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The city has been approved for $300,000 in Drinking Water State Revolving Fund low interest loans for 20 years at 2.5 percent interest. The city is also eligible for 50 percent loan forgiveness and 0 percent interest on the remaining $150,000.
The city is now pumping water at Second Creek for the first time in several years, public works director Wilmer Melton said. Drought has prevented the use of the station, which supplements Kannapolis Lake.
“We wanted to make sure the lake was full before we started,” Melton said.