Pocono News Section

Scranton Census office open

Scranton Census office open - Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 2:30PM EST

Reported by: David DeCosmo WYOU TV News
Tuesday, Feb 17, 2009 @ 02:30pm EST
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY

The U. S. Census Bureau has officially opened its Scranton office to serve 15 counties in northeastern and north-central Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia Regional Director Fernando Armstrong said the office would be hiring approximately 600 field workers in the next month. They will be using new technology in the form of portable computers to validate the addresses of every household in the district this spring. The Census Bureau will use those updated addresses when it mails its questionnaires in March of 2010.

Armstrong said it is very important that everyone be counted in the 2010 Census. Population figures are used by the Federal government to determine which communities get various grants. And the count is not limited to U. S. Citizens. Armstrong said undocumented individuals must be counted as well because they use services that are funded through census figures. Since the Census Bureau does not share its information with other agencies Armstrong says everyone may complete their Census forms without fear of retribution of any kind.

Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty says his city receives about four million dollars in grants each year based on Census figures. That money is used to operate the cit's Office of Community and Economic Development.

Steven Zaricki of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance, an industrial development organization, says that many businesses and industries use Census data to determine if they will locate in a particular community.