They appeared shortly before the election and revealed that Amherst and most neighboring towns in Hampshire County had grown in size, whereas Northampton and Pelham declined. In the neighboring towns of Franklin County, Leverett grew, whereas Shutesbury and Sunderland declined. Following are the new figures and relative changes:
Amherst.............37,819 8.44%
Belchertown........14,649 12.96
Granby................6,240 1.76
Hadley................5,250 9.53
Leverett..............1,851 11.30
Northampton.......28,549 -1.48
Pelham................1,321 -5.84
Shutesbury............1,771 -2.15
South Hadley........17,514 1.85
Sunderland...........3,684 -2.46
The new total population of the Commonwealth is 6,547,629.
As expected, the population changes will require a redistricting at the local precinct as well as congressional level.
Last week, the Select Board completed the process of organizing a redistricting committee (formal name: District Advisory Board), accepting the recommendations that the Town Clerk made based on the list of volunteers who put forward their names. Although there are currently 10 precincts and we may end up with an eleventh, regulations specify a nine-member committee:
Precinct 1: Mary Jane Laus
Precinct 2: Carolyn Holstein
Precinct 3: Nonny Burack
Precinct 4: Charles Moran
Precinct 5: Tom Ehrgood
Precinct 6: Bonnie Bascomb-MacCracken
Precinct 7: Adrienne Terrizzi
Precinct 8: John Kick
Precinct 9: Jonathan O'Keeffe
By June 15, the Select Board must approve the new boundaries, in order for the Town Clerk to convey the information to the Secretary of State a week later.
Resources
The ever-capable Michael Olkin, our Town GIS Administrator, has uploaded a zip file of state census data here, with documentation here.
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