By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The state of Kansas is still seeking responses to the 2020 Census, as is Hutchinson's Complete Count Committee.
"Response rates have certainly dropped a little bit," said Ryan Hvitlok with the City of Hutchinson. "We're now about two and a half months past census day. We're doing in Kansas, better than nationally. We're at about a 65.4% response rate. Reno County is doing better than the state at 66.8% and the City of Hutchinson is doing a little bit better than the state of Kansas at 65.7%. We're getting close to those 2010 numbers."
This week is the Call for the Count in Kansas. It's an effort to get the one-third of people in the state who haven't responded to take the time.
"We need to get those numbers as close to 2010 or possibly even exceed 2010 before the Census enumerators start knocking on the doors in early August," Hvitlok said.
Just like any other activity involving people meeting in person, sending out people to count from house to house would increase COVID-19 transmission risk at least marginally.
"The census enumerators are people right here in our own community," Hvitlok said. "We're all trying to do what we can still to slow the spread of COVID-19 and so part of that really does mean not having strangers come to your door from the Census, knocking on your door and asking those questions. The other part of it is, it is a savings for the taxpayers."
Getting an accurate Census count is vital to getting the city, county and state's proper share of Federal funds and resources.