By law, the United States government is required to conduct a census every 10 years. The purpose of the census is to get a physical count of all individuals and where they live. There are many good reasons why every citizen and inhabitant of Headland, Alabama should complete and return the census forms that will be mailed out in February 2010. Census figures are used to determine which grants a particular city, county or state can apply for from more than $400 billion dollars a year in Federal funds. For Headland, our goal is to prove that our city has a population of greater than 5,000 population so that the local government agencies and the City of Headland can apply for a wider range of grants for a variety of uses including:

• Infrastructure such as roads, sidewalks, water, sewage, garbage, etc.
• Job training centers
• Schools, pre-school and K-12 as well as libraries
• Senior citizen centers
• Bridges, tunnels and other-public works projects
• Emergency services including police, fire, EMS, ambulances

 

In addition, this may lead to a redistricting of county commission districts to give our area a greater representation on the Henry County Commission as well as the Henry County Board of Education and other agencies.

What about privacy? By law, any information collected by the U. S. Census Bureau cannot be disclosed to any other agency or government authority, whether federal, state, county or city. What this means is that anything you provide to on the census form is protected by law. This has been upheld in Federal court on numerous occasions. No federal, state or local agency such as the F.B.I., Immigration Service, Law Enforcement or Internal Revenue Service can gain access to this data. Your census information is safe!

The 2010 Census forms will have only 10 questions and should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. This is one of the shortest census forms in history due to the extensive criticism of the extensive form that was used in the 2000 census which many citizens felt asked too many personal questions.

We encourage every head of household and resident of the City of Headland as well as those within the Headland police jurisdiction to complete and return the 2010 census. Please note that this is not a voluntary act as it is required by law. Any household not returning a form will be visited by a census bureau representative later on in 2010 to have the form completed so do your duty and return the completed form. It will help your local community.