Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
This map shows the proposed redistricting that would flip West Larene from Commissioner District No. 3 to District No. 2.
DAVENPORT-The statewide process of redistricting has been confusing, bizarre and unconventional. Not so at the county level, where the proposed commissioner redistricting maps that occur every 10 years with the advent of new census data indicates just one change.
West Larene and its 100 citizens would shift from Commissioner District No. 3, which is Rob Coffman's district, to Scott Hutsell's Commissioner District No. 2. The change was brought before a public hearing at the commissioner's meeting by auditor Chandra Schumacher.
Every 10 years, the auditor's office is tasked with trying to divide the county into three commissioner districts with as even of a population split as possible without splitting precincts or jumping boundary lines...essentially, each border has to be complete between districts and can't jump across lines for the sake of making a perfect population split.
The West Larene precinct used to be in District No. 2, but was switched to District No. 3 during the 2010 redistricting process.
The 2020 census revealed that 3,609 people live in District No. 1, which is Mark Stedman's district. That district won't change.
3,529 live in District No. 2, while 3,738 live in District No. 3. Moving the 100 people in West Larene would bring the District No. 2 total to 3,629 and District No. 3 to 3,638.
An "ideal split" would come when each district has an equal population count. District No. 1 will be 16 under the ideal, District No. 2 will be four over the ideal and District No. 3 will be 13 over the ideal.
District No. 1 includes the cities of Harrington and Sprague, the town of Odessa and the precincts of Enos, Wilson Creek, Irby, rural Odessa, Earl, Lamona, Downs, rural Harrington, Mohler, rural Sprague, Bluestem, rural Davenport, Gravelle, Canby, Edwall, Waukon and south rural Reardan.
District No. 2 includes the city of Davenport, the town of Reardan and the precincts of Wheatland, East Larene, Mondovi, north rural Reardan, Spring Creek and Long Lake.
District No. 3 includes the towns of Creston, Almira and Wilbur and the precincts of Grand Coulee, Lakeview, Keller, rural Almira, Govan, rural Wilbur, Keller, Sherman, rural Creston, Peach, Hawk Creek, Riverview and Egypt.
The commissioners will vote to make the new redistricting official at their Dec. 20 meeting.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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