City to challenge census results

Has Sundance really lost an eighth of its population over the last ten years? The city council doesn’t think so, and now aims to challenge the results of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 redistricting data.

The data was released a month ago and stated that Sundance saw a significant reduction in population from 1182 to 1032 between the years of 2010 and 2019. This loss of 150 citizens represents a 12.7% decline.

Sundance was not alone – of the municipalities in Crook County, all but Pine Haven saw a decline. The county itself, however, saw a modest growth of 1.4% from 7083 to 7181 citizens.

“It’s very disheartening that they think we have lost people,” said Clerk Treasurer Kathy Lenz as she raised the issue with the Sundance City Council.

Mayor Paul Brooks agreed, commenting that the amount of funding a city receives is dependent on its population.

“It’s going to be financially devastating when you look at $750 a head times a couple of hundred people,” he said.

The mayor also questioned the validity of the results, considering how many of the homes in Sundance are currently occupied and the number of buildings that have been added. The city is “continuing to add front doors,” he said, so how can those results be accurate?

Lenz noted that the numbers inform other financial issues, such as decision-making at the state level for a city’s liquor license quotient. However, she said, there are mechanisms through which the city can contest the results.

There are “multiple ways to try to quantify” the citizenry, said Brooks, suggesting such ideas as pounds of garbage collected divided by an average person’s waste, or total water usage divided by an average person’s usage. The mayor would be open to suggestions, he said.

Lenz was granted permission by the council to pursue a challenge to the census numbers.