Be sure to get your nose counted as the U. S. Census Bureau begins its population count for 2010. The count will begin in March when questionnaires will be distributed by mail or directly to homes by census personnel. They are to be returned by April 1. Workers with the census are billing this year’s questionnaire as the shortest ever.

It is being promoted as “10 questions in 10 minutes.”

Fuquay-Varina and other Wake towns are taking extra steps, joining together to hire help, to be sure all are counted, for the final totals may influence the amount of federal, state and perhaps even Wake County money the town receives as distribution is made on a per capita basis.

Christine Mackey, who is working with the census bureau, appeared before the Fuquay-Varina Town Board last week, to ask for help in promoting participation in the census. She said every year the federal government can allocate more than $300 billion to states and communities based, in part, on census data. It is also census data that is used to determines the number of representatives each state will have in the U. S. House of Representatives.

Ms. Mackey said indications are Fuquay-Varina will show a population at, or above, 17,000 in the 2010 census, more than double the approximately 7,000 reported after the 2000 nose count. She distributed information to commissioners showing North Carolina cities among the fastest growing in the country.

The information, taken from the July 1, 2009 Triangle Business Journal, shows Cary and Raleigh among the top 10 fastest growing U. S. Cities and Durham in the top 20.