Published: October 29, 2009 11:19 pm      

Census office opening locally

Safety issues eyed

Ashland — The U.S. Census Bureau is in the midst of opening an Ashland office to support 2010 census operations in eastern Kentucky.

Census officials say no additional safety precautions have been put in place yet for door-to-door workers following the death of a part-time census worker in Clay County.

The Ashland office will employ about 1,381 to support operations in 25 Kentucky counties, including Bath, Boyd, Breathitt, Carter, Elliott, Estill, Fleming, Floyd, Greenup, Jackson, Johnson, Lawrence, Lee, Lewis, Magoffin, Martin, Menifee, Montgomery, Morgan, Nicholas, Owsley, Pike, Powell, Rowan and Wolfe.

The Ashland office at 1539 Greenup Ave. Suite 501 will bring the number of Kentucky census offices to seven.

Census spokesman J. Clayton Barbour said the range of functions will be performed out of the office. Workers include managers, crew leaders, crew leader assistants, recruiting assistants, census clerks and census takers, which go door to door.

Barbour said whether additional safety precautions will be put in place for census takers who go door to door is still being discussed.

Questions have been raised in the wake of the death in September of part-time census worker Bill Sparkman, 51. Sparkman was found gagged and with his hands and feet bound hanging from a tree with the word “fed” scrawled on his chest in a rural part of the Daniel Boone National Forest in southeast Kentucky.

His death is still under investigation.

“Right now they are still continuing to discuss the safety situations in the region — not just in Kentucky. They are evaluating if they need extra time or extra precaution. That stuff is still being discussed,” he said.

“We already have safety precautions in place,” Barbour said. “That is the primary concern at all times when you are doing something like this.”

Barbour said census workers are trained to leave an area immediately if they are threatened or become frightened for their safety and to tell their supervisor about any incident.

“If an employee feels there is a danger, they can ask for someone to go with them. They can pair up if they feel like they are in an area that would be alarming,” Barbour said.

He added that threatening or assaulting a federal employee is a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Sparkman was working part time for the census bureau gathering information for the American Community Survey, which many refer to as “the long form,” Barbour said.

As a result of Sparkman’s death the census bureau has suspended the door-to-door visits associated with the ACS in that area and are following up by telephone instead, Barbour said.

Barbour said he is unsure how many will physically be working at the office in Ashland and how many of the 1,381 will be census takers working on location throughout the 25 counties managed by the regional office.

According to Michelle Veach, Ashland assistant finance director, only those physically working in Ashland will pay city payroll taxes.

Most of those hired are local residents. The jobs are all temporary and will last only until who will be employed until census operations wind down following Census Day on April 1, 2010. Barbour said the census is due to President Barack Obama by Dec. 31, 2010.

The Ashland office will not be fully operational until later this year. An open house is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 11, Barbour said.

The census bureau is not accepting job applications at this time because of overwhelming response. He said some additional jobs may become available, but recruiting will be done in a “grassroots” manner in targeted areas.

CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.