County begins redistricting process

While Taylor County’s population has not changed much since the 2010 census, where people live in the county has. Both the village of Rib Lake and Gilman saw larger decreases in population than the city of Medford and towns of Medford, Little Black and Browning gaining in population.

District boundaries for local elected offices will need to shift to reflect these population changes. However, members of the county’s newly formed redistricting committee said they did not expect these changes to be major. This is a good thing, considering the compressed timeframe for the current census information to be implemented.

With census data arriving to counties and municipalities six months later than normal, governments will have to work swiftly to make any changes to voting district maps before nomination papers are given out in December.

According to county clerk Andria Farrand, typically the county would have received the census information on March 1 allowing for 60 days for each of the numerous steps to take place as districts are adjusted to reflect population shifts. Farrand told members of the county’s redistricting committee on Tuesday that they are hoping to get the final information needed by August 23, but are not expecting it until September 1.

Another challenge facing the county this time around is that in the two prior post-census redistricting the work was led by former UW-Extension agent Arlen Albrecht who has since retired. Agent Michell Grimm is stepping up to work with the county surveyor’s office staff to prepare preliminary plans reflecting the changes. Farrand explained that the local process is supposed to be nonpartisan and because she is a partisan elected official she cannot lead the redistricting.

“How do you find someone who is nonpartisan,” joked committee member Chuck Zenner.

Grimm said the goal of the redistricting is to make the populations in each of the districts roughly equal without making major changes. “We are trying to keep it as similar as possible,” she said.

Committee member Lester Lewis also said they should work to make the lines as straight as possible for the boundaries. “I don’t like fingers,” he said, of narrow parts of district that jut into adjoining areas.

The overall process is fairly straightforward with the county staff to develop a preliminary plan by the beginning of September. That plan will be on review to the public during the month of September with a formal public hearing before the September 21 county board meeting. The plan will then formally be shared to the other municipalities for input with a final public hearing on any changes on October 27 with action to approve the redistricting that day at the fall county board session.

Medford city clerk Ashley Lemke said she knows there will be some significant changes in the city boundaries with signifi cant population shifts to the northeast area of the city due to the Schultz housing development and the southwest portion of the city due to the development of the Eagle Ridge Subdivision. Lemke will be working with the county from the beginning of the process to incorporate proposed city boundary changes as part of the overall redistricting efforts.