ENID — After 21 years in the Air Force, working with military contractors and acting as a consultant, Brett Schriever decided a life of semi-retirement did not suit him.

“I got tired of watching TV,” he said.

So he decided to make his life count, literally.

“I took a job as a clerk with the Census Bureau,” he said. From there, Schriever applied for and was hired as Enid office manager, making a move to northwest Okla-homa, where his wife once lived.

Now, Schriever will make sure residents of 16 counties — including Gar-field — are included in the 2010 census, for, he said, the stakes are high.

Each person counted in the census reflects about $1,000 to $1,200 in grant money, federal dollars allocated based on census data, Schriever said.

“If you miss 10 families with four people, you miss 40 people. That’s $40,000.” he said.

That much money for some communities could mean the equivalent of an emergency clinic, for example.

“Congress appropriates $400 billion each year for services that are important to communities,” Jeronimo Gallegos, partnership specialist with the Census Bureau, told Enid commissioners during a recent study session at city hall.

In 2000, the last census count, Enid had a 69 percent response rate, he said.

That number compares to 64 and 67 percent response rates, respectively, for Oklahoma and the nation in 2000.

Enid ended with an official population count of 47,045. But that was a decade ago, and a lot has changed.

“These numbers are no longer accurate and reveal what Enid is all about,” Gallegos said.

Census timeline



Although the Census Bureau still is hiring for the upcoming count, workers have been busy since last spring implementing planning meetings, school programs, partner briefings, media relations activities and early recruiting and address canvassing.

Armed with handheld computers, census workers traveled “every county road” in the area — as part of a national canvas — to record the location of new homes or confirm old residence data, Schriever said.

That information and the GPS maps created will become useful when workers begin follow-up work this spring, he said.

Currently the Census Bureau is in its peak recruitment time, seeking workers who will deliver questionnaires, serve as advisers to those completing the forms and perform follow-up visits.

Schriever will oversee operations in Cana-dian, Cleveland, Creek, Garfield, Grant, Kay, Kingfisher, Lincoln, Noble, Okmulgee, Okfuskee, Payne, Pawnee, Pottawatomie, Osage and Seminole counties.

Beginning in March, more than 130 million addresses across the nation will receive census forms through the mail or by hand-delivery.

Most mail-outs will go to households in cities like Enid. Many of the rural communities will get forms delivered by workers.

“And if we can’t get to the door, we’ll probably leave it on a gate post, if it’s a locked gate,” Schriever said.

Also starting this month, questionnaire centers will be established to help residents — especially those with limited English — fill out the forms. Schriever said a center is planned at Advance Food, where there is a high number of workers who speak limited English, and another may be es-tablished at the library.

Census Day is recognized April 1. Those filling out the census should consider his or her household as consisting of everyone residing there on that day, Schriever said.

College students living away from home will be counted in on- or off-campus housing; military personnel, depending on their living situation, are numbered at home or in barracks or using military residency records if living overseas; and those living in nursing or assisted living homes, shelters or jail will be counted in those group locations.

Foreign citizens living in the United States should be counted at the residence they are staying, and that includes those living here illegally, Schriever said. They are, after all, using the services, he said.

After April 1, he said, census workers begin non-response follow-up.

“That’s the larg-est operation we have,” Schriever said.

The census workers will return to a residence at different periods throughout the day up to six times, he said, to get the census form. At that point, he said, they will attempt to gather the most accurate information possible from a neighbor.

It is important for the neighbor and his or her community for everyone to be counted in order to provide the most accurate data for federal allocations, he said.

The follow-up work will wrap up at the end of July, and the Census Bureau will provide the 2010 apportionment counts to the president by Dec. 31.

The census form consists of 10 questions in 2010, which is different than the last count in 2000.

Ten years ago there was a mix of long and short questionnaires. Officials decided this year it was more imperative to keep it simple, or “plain vanilla” as Schriever put it, to improve the chances of completion.

Questions include the number of people living in the household, the type of home, telephone numbers in case census workers have questions and the sex, age and race of those filling out the form. Subsequent questions will cover similar information about each person in the household.

All information is confidential, he said, and workers undergo background checks before they are hired.

“We’re going to have a lot of personal information,” Schriever said. “We are going to protect that to no end.”

Entering the census office in downtown Enid is not an easy process. Those allowed must have background checks for clearance.

“I think of it as a big steel bottle,” he said of the process, with the information sealed for 72 years and released then mainly for genealogy purposes.

The information received by the president will consist only of population and demographic data to enable Con-gress and the administration to allocate programs and funding where they are most needed.

By the time the count is concluded, workers will have gone door-to-door, visited nur-sing homes and soup kitchens and walked the streets in search of the homeless.

The most accurate count possible will be completed, Schriever said, and workers will have observed many walks of life in official and unofficial roles in their time with the bureau.

Schriever said already the workers have seen higher rates of residency in campgrounds, for instance, that reflects to him, personally, the economic times.

What that reflects officially through census numbers, only time will tell.