This is the final month to be counted and help guarantee Coos County receives funding for essential services that will shape our community for the next 10 years.
Census determines how many representatives Oregon gets in Congress. It is used by lawmakers in Washington and Salem to allocate funding that impacts Coos County – including our roads, schools, hospitals, and healthcare clinics. An under-count in Coos County could mean our community loses out on important funds that will leave us behind.
Deadline is September 30. Don’t wait – respond online at 2020census.gov, by phone at 844-330-2020 for English or 844-468-2020 for Spanish, or by mail if you received a paper questionnaire. You can respond in English, Spanish, and 11 other languages.
If you don’t respond, you will be visited by a locally hired census taker. Please cooperate. They are trained on CDC and local health guidelines, will maintain at least a six-foot distance, and will be wearing masks and carrying other personal protective equipment (PPE) for safety.
A census taker may also call you at home, so please answer.
Census asks only 10 questions about you and who lives in your home with you and only takes a few minutes to complete. Answers are confidential and can never be shared with federal or local agencies. Census takers will have a valid ID badge with their photograph, a U.S. Department of Commerce watermark, and an expiration date. They may also carry Census Bureau bags and equipment with the Census Bureau logo. They will never ask for Social Security numbers, banking info, citizenship status, or political affiliation. If you have questions about their identity, you can contact the Los Angeles Regional Census Center at 213-314-6500 to speak with a Census Bureau representative.
If we want our voices to be heard at the local and federal level, we need to do our civic duty and respond. If we want continued support for critical programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, school lunches, education programs like Head Start, bridges, bike paths, and other infrastructure, we should respond.
If you haven’t already, you are about to miss this once in a decade chance to shape our future and better our community for the next 10 years.
If you need a computer to complete census, both the Coos Bay Library and the North Bend Library are offering limited public computer use by appointment with obvious Covid-19 restrictions such as mask wearing for everyone’s safety. Call us and sign up now!
Coos Bay Public Library: (541) 269-1101
North Bend Public Library: (541) 756-0400
Paul Addis
Coos Bay Library
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Spanish