The Lycoming County Commissioners took a week off from their regular meetings, but have been in continual contact with key county leaders as well as state and federal officials. I personally realized how dedicated our county employees are during this crisis when I received an answer to an email from the commissioner’s administrative manager, Eileen Ebner, time stamped 1:30 p.m. on Sunday (!), March 29th. These folks are working harder than ever and going the second (and probably third and fourth) mile.

The meeting held on Tuesday, March 30th was quite unusual in that there were only ten county representatives; Commissioners Metzger and Mussare (Rick Mirabito was on speaker), Eileen mentioned above, Matt McDermott, Director of Administration, Sheriff Lusk, one of his deputies, three department heads, and a tech handling the livestream. I was the one and only representative of the “public.” There were at least a dozen officials who used speakerphone to interact with the commissioners, and the technical challenges, as well as the lengthy agenda, made for a very, very long meeting. However, in a strange way, it was reassuring in the sense that much of the business was routine. Even in the midst of this crisis, the county is still maintaining and improving its services in the voting process, housing for homeless, early learning for children, etc. Obviously, the most important aspect of the meeting was Jeffrey Hutchins, the new Director of Public Safety, who noted that emergency services were all responding well.

And now it is the residents of Lycoming County to do their turn to respond. Every ten years, a census is conducted as mandated in the U.S. Constitution. In the past, the census was sent by mail and then followed up by census takers to visit those who did not respond to the mail census. Unfortunately, Lycoming County did not fare well in 2010, with almost 24 percent failing to respond by mail as compared to 14 percent of the neighboring counties.

Every single person should be concerned about getting the count right because those numbers will shape how political power and federal tax dollars are shared in the United States over the next ten years. The number of congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets are determined by census numbers. They also guide how the billions of dollars in federal funding is distributed for schools, roads, and other public services in local communities. The importance of ensuring an accurate count cannot be overemphasized. For every person that is missed, it would cost the county $2000 in missed federal revenue. The 2010 census in Bradford County missed 4000 people, a net $8 million loss per year, a cumulative $80 million over the decade till this new census when it can be corrected.

The best news is how easy it is to complete the census. This one is vastly different than the last two that preceded it. The 2000 census was long and invasive, with over 100 questions and taking 90 minutes to complete. That was dialed back considerably in the 2010 census to a 25-question survey, but this year’s census has just nine questions. It takes less time to complete than it takes to boil water for cooking spaghetti. It is super simple, private, safe, and secure. Best of all, it is not at all invasive. There are no questions like how many toilets you have in your house, how much fire insurance you carry, or what transportation you use to get to work.

For those who have received the census form in the mail, it includes a unique ID that is used for logging into the census website: my20202census.gov. This will then lead into the 9-question survey, and upon completion, a confirmation code number will be given. This ensures that the household will be eliminated from any future one-to-one contact in relation to the 2020 census. If you misplaced your original census mailer, the website should still be used. Start the census, and the first input will be to supply the 12-digit Census ID, and for those without one will see underneath the “Login” a link to “If you do not have a Census ID, click here.”

For those without internet access, call 844-330-2020 and talk to a real person who will read the nine questions, enter the info as it is given, and then give the confirmation code. It could not be simpler. For those who still have questions, the state has an extremely helpful website: http://www.pa.gov/census. It has links to how to count college students, how COVID-19 is impacting the census and other useful information.

So, take a break from binging on Netflix and do the easiest, and the best thing you can do that only takes ten minutes but will help our region for the next ten years. If you have not done so yet, go to my2020census.gov or for those without internet access, call 884-330-2020. It makes sense to get counted in the census.