City Seeks a Consensus on Census of Valdez Population

City Seeks a Consensus on Census of Valdez Population

By Lee Revis
Editor, Valdez Star

CITY HALL - The Valdez City Council passed a resolution adopting the figure of 4,600 residents as the official population of Valdez at the city council meeting Monday night. The move comes as a rebuttal of the annual "Population Determination" put out by the State of Alaska last January, which estimated the population of town to be 3,749.

The city of Valdez was dubious of those numbers and set out to do an estimate of their own. One of the methods of determining population counts that the state allows is by what is called the "Housing Unit Method" according to Lisa Von Bargen, Director of Community and Economic Development for Valdez. "We actually did a 100% field enumeration," she told the council.

In laymans terms, that means that the city actually went out and verified whether or not every housing unit in the city was actually still standing and whether or not it was occupied. It also includes numbers of people living in what are called "group quarters", like the Senior Center and the college. Then using accepted averages for the sizes of housing units from the 2001 mail in census the city conducted in 2001, they were able to peg the number of residents in Valdez at 4,600. "We're not counting exact," Ms. Von Bargen told the council. "It's a best guess estimate."

The numbers are important to the City for a number of reasons, including the possibility that Valdez will be forced into a Prince William Sound Borough.

"This is a very big increase," said City Attorney Bill Walker. "I am so pleased with this."

He said a higher population count is important not only for the possible borough issue, but for voter districting issues and beyond.

Ms. Von Bargen did note that the city does need to consider a true head count at some point in the near future.