A handful of cities in Arkansas are seeking to have an update of their 2010 Census populations based on city boundaries that changed after annexations.
If the numbers change, those cities could get more money from the state, while others might get less.
The 2010 Census population totals use city boundaries that the U.S. Census Bureau had on record as of Jan. 1, 2010.
Since that time, Springdale in Northwest Arkansas has annexed more than 1,900 acres on its northern and southern edges, west of Interstate 49, formerly Interstate 540.
Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse said his city has spent $1.4 million repaving every dirt road in the annexed areas and extending city services into those areas, but state funding continues to be based on the 2010 population living inside the former city boundaries.
"We don't know what we're going to add with this change," Sprouse said.
The census updates, done under the Geographically Updated Population Certification Program, differ from a special census, which cities also can request. The updates account only for the new territory and don't attempt to count residents added since the prior census.
The U.S. Department of Commerce reactivated the population certification program in October after a five-year suspension. Because they don't involve the enumeration of a special census, they are far less costly.
Brookland, near Jonesboro in Northeast Arkansas, is being scheduled for a special census, Mayor Kenneth Jones said. The city sought the special census because of the development that has occurred within land annexed after the 2010 Census, he said.
A population certification would not show any new growth.
The 2010 Census population for Brookland was 1,642. While the Census Bureau issued a 2013 population estimate for Brookland of 2,447, Jones thinks the actual count will show a population greater than 2,700, he said.
He anticipates the special census will result in the Craighead County city receiving close to $100,000 in additional revenue from the state, he said.
The city paid the Census Bureau $70,000 and will pay an additional $26,000 when field agents conduct a new census of the city, he said.
Fees for the Geographically Updated Population Certification Program range from $622 to $1,934, plus a $35 charge for original copies of certificates, according to the census.
City officials often want to know how to revise census population figures after an annexation, said Jeff Hawkins, executive director for the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission.
The commission is assisting Springdale in its certification process, as well as three other cities, Cave Springs, Gravette and Greenland.
"They will count how many people were there then that are now in the new city limits," Hawkins said. "They don't get credit for any new growth."
Revisions in city populations can have an impact on cities statewide.
The state Legislature makes a general appropriation of state revenue for cities, said state Chief Deputy Treasurer Debbie Rogers. State formulas for distributing money for streets and general operations are based on the population counted in the last federal census.
"There's only so much money to distribute to everyone every month," Rogers said. "The pie doesn't increase. If one city gets a bigger piece of the pie, then everyone else gets a smaller piece."
The Arkansas Municipal League's most recent analysis found that cities receive $15.50 per capita in general state turnback revenue and $62 per capita in turnback revenue for streets, Executive Director Don Zimmerman said.
Springdale was the state's fourth largest city after the 2010 Census, with a population of 69,797. That was 3,783 fewer residents than Fayetteville, which had 73,580 residents.
Sprouse said he thought a new count would narrow the difference in population between the two cities and has heard wide-ranging estimates of the population in the annexed areas. The city's 2013 population estimate from the Census Bureau was 75,229, compared with Fayetteville's 2013 population estimate of 78,960.
A comparison of Springdale's 2010 boundary with newer city limits that include the annexed portions indicates that the city will likely gain more than 1,000 residents with the certification. Using 2010 census data, the new boundaries could include as many as 71,232 residents, according to an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette analysis.
The newspaper arrived at the newer estimated population using geographical information systems software and block-level census counts. A census block is the smallest geography of population data public released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The newspaper totaled the populations by grouping all of the census blocks, which had their center inside the new population boundary. The newspaper's number could be an overestimate because some census blocks had portions both inside and outside the boundary, meaning some residents who live just outside of the city limits couldn't be separated out.
Greenland Mayor Bill Groom said his city sought a population certification because annexations of 517 acres of land that occurred between 2004 and 2008 were not recorded on census maps for the 2010 Census.
Landowners sought a voluntary annexation into Greenland, in Washington County, so that city zoning laws would apply to their property, especially along Interstate 49, he said.
Groom thinks the revision will add several dozen to the 2010 Census population for Greenland.
"You've got to watch all the dollars and cents," he said. "If we've got the people to justify a little more money every month, we're going to try to obtain it."
At the time of the 2010 Census, Gravette, in Benton County, was a 2 1/2-square-mile city of 2,325 residents, Mayor Byron Warren said. After the census, the community of Hiwasse sought in 2011 to become part of Gravette. The annexations that resulted added 12 square miles to Gravette, now a city of 14 square miles.
The city is paying the U.S. Census to update the city maps to reflect the annexations and issue a new certification of the population, Warren said. The Census Bureau estimated Gravette had a population of 3,213 people in 2013.
Warren is interested to see how the 2010 Census count is revised, he said. The addition of the Hiwasse community meant the addition of 23 miles of dirt road into Gravette, which required the purchase of a road grader. Rains in 2013 washed out some of those roads, which cost Gravette $90,000 to repair.
Information for this article was contributed by Chad Day of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 06/03/2014