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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
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CENSUS OFFICE OPENS

Census 2000 officially began Thursday afternoon with the dedication of the Nisky Center headquarters on St. Thomas. Guest speakers, streamers, balloons and a buffet marked the day that most persons in the Virgin Islands received their official census questionnaires.
"Everyone goes to Washington with their hand out," UVI President Orville Kean explained. "That's what the federal government expects. The important thing is to know how much of the pie is your share when you go asking. The census gives us that information."
Kean went on to explain his long association with the census, which began when he was an assistant in the former Commerce Department doing planning and research. At that time Frank Mills was a volunteer and they came to the realization that the College of the Virgin Islands was best equipped to carry out the census. Hence the contract is now held by UVI and conducted out of the Caribbean Center where Mills is the director.
As census manager, Mills introduced the St. Thomas management staff to an audience of media and university representatives and gave an update on the status of the Census centers on St. Thomas and St. Croix.
He presented Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's representative, Roy Frett, special assistant to the governor, with a census poster that features a painting by local artist Leo Carty, who signed the poster.
Frett talked about the long process of getting ready for the monumental task of counting every single person in the Virgin Islands and mapping every single structure.
Other speakers included Fay Nash, assistant division chief of the Decennial Management Bureau of the Census in Washington, D.C., and Al Giglitto, on-site census adviser for the Virgin Islands.
Nash explained the preparation and the economic census that take place in the nine years between the counts. She also said this is the first year that paid advertising is being used throughout the United States to encourage all persons to participate.
Media representatives were encouraged to spread the word to all Virgin Islands residents that each person counts and all information is confidential.
Mills said every census employee has been sworn to secrecy and risk a fine and imprisonment for making any disclosures of information gained during the census. It is also important to note that the specific information is not passed on to other government agencies.
The data is important, not the individual names. What matters is how many seniors we have, how many school age children, how persons earn their living, what services we need from the government like roads, schools, business development, what trends are taking place, and whether there has been growth or decline in population.

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