CHESTER - Stand up and be counted.

 The Chester Village Commission is working on a census for its residents.

 "Well, we were having a conversation about the Lido pool and who uses it," said commissioner Jo-Ann Grant. "We were talking about how many people were using it and then if they came from the village or outside."

 That talk led to the idea of a survey of sorts to determine just that. Over time, the discussion evolved.

 "Then we got to thinking we don't have any clear numbers about the village itself, how many people live here, how many are permanent, how many are seasonal, nothing," she added.

 With the federal government planning on doing away with the long-form census, there will be less and less information available through Statistics Canada, particularly about rural communities.

 "Well, I was on StatsCan and there isn't any information there specific to the village anyway," Ms Grant said. "There is municipal information, but not a lot about the village."

 The census will include the commonly requested information such as sex, age, residence status, and permanent address, among other things.

 However, Ms Grant stressed any personal information requested is purely confidential.

 "Of course, this is a voluntary census," she said. "The plan is to get all that basic information and then destroy the forms afterwards."

 Although nothing has been finalized as of yet, village clerk Iris Tolliver said a preliminary census has been drawn up, but it first must be discussed by the commission before it can be sent out.

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 She added it's likely nothing will be in place until late summer, early fall.

posted on 09/07/10