FARMVILLE – With 2011 redistricting work beginning across the region, the Commonwealth Regional Council has been authorized to purchase software that will help localities through the process.

The assistance would be free to both members of the CRC and non-members, according to information provided during the Council's meeting on Thursday evening.

Once the software is purchased, if there is enough interest in the assistance, localities or their redistricting committees would be able to come into the CRC office and use the software.

The software, according to Melody Foster, regional planner, would allow for districts to be maneuvered correlating with 2010 census numbers.

“It helps them manipulate the districts plus or minus five percent,” she said about the software assisting with demographics and overlay when looking at redistricting.

According to Ms. Foster, local counties will not receive the 2010 census numbers until at least February.

“The census numbers don't come out until February but Virginia is assured to be one of the first on the list of the states because of the primaries being held in June, that they get their data first,” she continued. “February is the best they have given us…but I've been assured that it will be early February.”

With regards to how the localities would utilize the software, Ms. Foster said about the conference room, “We could hook it up to our big screen, similar to what we did last time, and have committee meetings in here.”

“There's a lot of different avenues that we can go from there but I think the first step would be if we wanted to purchase it,” she said.

According to Chairman Gary Walker, the CRC is in the process of retaining membership and although the software would be an expense it still should be purchased to generate interest in the Council.

The only county, according to Ms. Foster, that has shown interest in moving ahead with the process on its own is Buckingham.

“I am going to contact them again just to make sure,” she noted. “I know Amelia, Charlotte, and Lunenburg were very interested with having our assistance…”

Ms. Foster was also directed by the Council to reach out to Cumberland and Nottoway counties related to the software and redistricting assistance.

“I think they are more of a potential save than some of the others,” said Walker about recruiting Cumberland back into the CRC's membership this fiscal year.

The two different programs that the CRC is considering purchasing would be Maptitude or Autobound 9. The CRC has experience with using Maptitude because that was the software used in 2000, according to Ms. Foster.

Maptitidue, she said, would cost the CRC $5,500 to purchase and the price of Autobound is $5,100.

“I didn't know if you wanted to go ahead and approve that purchase at this point and then we go to the localities before we actually purchase it,” she said. “If we had that approval, we could go to the localities and find out how many…have an interest in doing this. Once we've got that approval I think that will mark it up a notch to get a little more enthusiasm…”

The Council, before moving on, decided that it would be in the best interest of the organization to offer the software and assistance to all localities within the region at no charge.

“We've been authorized to purchase this but we want to have enough interest,” noted Ms. Foster about the decision to actually purchase the software.

According to the Chairman, at least two counties would need to agree to use the software before the decision is made to purchase the software.

“You all can move forward on that, it's a great project,” continued Walker.

About the service being free, Ellsworth J. Bennett, secretary and representative from Amelia said, “Ask everybody you can.”

“I say let's do that,” added Walker about also offering the assistance to nearby towns that also qualify. “We've got it here and they can use it…Maybe we'll get a little publicity if nothing else and it's certainly the right attitude to have.”

Membership Dues

Last month, the CRC decided that it would also be in the best interest of the organization to keep the membership dues/investment at $15,700.

During last month's discussion, the Chairman stated that member localities would not be able to sustain an increase in membership even though the CRC could use the additional revenue.

In other budget news, the entire Board will be participating on the budget committee due to the amount of members in the organization.

Because the committee consists of everyone, Mary Hickman, acting president/CEO, presented a proposed budget schedule for consideration.

After a discussion, the members present decided to put off any meetings until February so that a better grasp of the draft budget would be available.

“First off, the first one is a complete financial overview of where the organization is at the moment,” said Ms. Hickman. “Right now, it's hard to propose a budget because we don't know where the revenues are. We don't know where the state is going in that respect and we have been analyzing where we are in our current projects and anticipated revenue forthcoming…”

Due to not having any concrete information related to revenue this month, the Council decided to begin the budget meetings on Wednesday, February 16.

Buckingham Representative

Before the meeting was adjourned, Ms. Hickman also called the Council's attention to a letter received from Buckingham's County Administrator, Rebecca Carter, related to the County's representative on the CRC.

In December, after attending his first and last CRC meeting, Supervisor John Kitchen stated during Buckingham's Board of Supervisors meeting that he was not interested in attending any more CRC meetings.

Ms. Carter's letter to Ms. Hickman went on to explain that Kitchen had been appointed “as temporary fill-in for Supervisor (Danny) LeSueur.”

“Supervisor Danny LeSueur was appointed as Board representative for the CRC, but due to employment restrictions, was unable to attend a few meetings. He stated that he would be able to attend the next meeting and the Board approved to appoint him as Board representative,” continued Ms. Carter in the letter that was received by the CRC in December.

Buckingham was not represented during Thursday's CRC meeting.

For more information related to the redistricting software and CRC assistance, contact the Council's office at (434) 392-6104.