Oskaloosa City Council to consider reprecincting
Osky News Logo
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Citizens could be seeing some changes in their voting wards. The Oskaloosa City Council is now considering “reprecincting” the city of Oskaloosa. The process is mandated by Governor Terry Branstad as a result of the 2010 Census. Oskaloosa gained population in the last census.
As a result of that population gain, the city voting wards have unbalanced populations. At a work session in May, the city council was given two options: Case 1 and Case 2. The Council opted to go with Case 1. The case will be formally voted on by the City Council at Monday’s meeting. The populations of the proposed wards are very close to each other. Those populations will be: Ward 1-2864, Ward 2- 2869, Ward 3- 2872, and Ward 4- 2858.
The proposed changes to the city wards are not very noticeable compared to the current map. The biggest changes come within the city’s second ward. In that ward, the 400th block of 6th Ave East and 3rd Ave East are new additions. Those blocks were previously included within the third ward. In addition, a couple of blocks of 16th Ave East directly off of the highway are joined with the second ward. Those blocks had also previously been in the third ward.
In the city’s fourth ward, the only changes deal with adding in one block of High Ave East. That block is the block that stretches between South 9th Street and South 11th Street. No other changes are noted within the fourth ward. The only other change comes in the 1st ward. One block on the east side of Market Street will no longer be included within the 1st ward and will no be included in the fourth ward. That block contains some dormitories for William Penn University and is located South of Sheriff Avenue and West of Lacy Street. The proposed 1st ward would now be just the Northwest Quadrant of Oskaloosa.
The City Council will hold a public hearing on this item at its’ meeting on Monday. After the hearing, the council will vote on the proposed ward map. The map must pass three consecutive readings. If approved, the wards will take affect in the June 5th, 2012 Primary Election. The wards, if approved, will NOT affect the 2012 Iowa Caucuses. If you have any questions on the proposed wards, e-mail us at info@oskynews.org.
The proposed Oskaloosa Voting Wards Map
