Redistrict maps omits recently added areas

St. Martinville – The reapportionment plan adopted by the St. Martinville City Council last month does not include two areas of the city which were incorporated since the 2010 Census.
The areas include the Sieber Road neighborhood on the west side of town and the Conde Road/Trosclair Road section on the north side.
The two areas were annexed into the city during 2014 and 2015.
The Conde Road addition took in the Dollar General Store on North Main Street along with the new SLCC campus.
The Sieber Road area is adjacent to Council District 3 while the Conde Road area abuts District 2.
No Choice
But Cedric Floyd with DATA Center LLC, the Kenner based company hired by the city to develop a reapportionment plan that would conform with results of the 2020 Census, said
he was required to use the city map the Census Department used in conducting its count of community residents.
The map does not include the newly incorporated areas.
“I had no choice,” he says. “We had to use the Census map.”
It is uncertain just how the Census Bureau determines what map is to be used in compiling the official Census statistics.
Information on just how many people live in the newly incorporated areas, or how those numbers might have affected the newly drawn districts, is apparently not available.
With the qualification period for the March 26 municipal primary election just three weeks away, Clerk of Court Becky Patin pointed out that her office has no authority to question a candidate’s intent to qualify within a city council district.
“We must accept whatever information they certify when they file as a candidate,” she said.