Hall entitlement status depends on better census count

GAINESVILLE - City and County officials at Monday night's Joint Local Government Association meeting in Gainesville got a reminder that an accurate census count could mean more funding for Hall County.

Two hundred thousand is the population Hall County needs to become an entitlement community, qualifying for direct federal funding and a lot more of it according to Assistant County Administrator Phil Sutton.

"An urban population of over 200,000 can allow you to become an entitlement community which would give us direct access to federal grants," Sutton said. "Right now we have to go through the State Department of Community Affairs and compete for the grants. As an entitlement community we would have a direct conduit to Washington grant funding with a predictable amount of grant funding every year."

Census specialist Gerson Vasquez says with an accurate count it could happen; it depends on how closely Hall's diverse language population including Hispanics and Asians are counted.

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