To be a city, Berwick challenges census count again

By BILL DECKER
bdecker@daily-review.com
BERWICK — The agenda for Tuesday’s Town Council meeting was printed beneath a logo showing the iconic lighthouse and the words “City of Berwick Louisiana.”
Legally, that designation continues to be an exaggeration. But the council hopes that a new LSU estimate will push the population above 5,000, persuading the governor to turn Berwick from a town into a city.
The council passed a resolution Tuesday formally asking an LSU professor to conduct “a census on behalf of the Town of Berwick.” A positive result could be used as ammunition in a request to have the governor give Berwick the promotion in municipal status.
Mayor Duval Arthur challenged the town population as determined by the 2020 Census almost as soon as the results were released in 2021.
The 2010 Census had put Berwick’s population at 4,946, just 54 people short of the 5,000 threshold at which a town becomes a city in Louisiana. State law sets out how governments are constituted for villages (municipalities with a population of 1,000 or fewer), towns (1,001-5,000) and cities.
But, although Berwick has a home-rule charter that basically defines its own rights and responsibilities, there is still a matter of municipal pride.
That pride took a hit when the 2020 Census, which was hindered by the COVID pandemic, showed a Berwick population decline to 4,768. Arthur has appealed the result to the U.S. Census Bureau, but the bureau hasn’t responded, he said Tuesday.
The annual estimates produced by the Census Bureau, based on “births, deaths, and migration,” according to the bureau website, show Berwick’s population dropping to 4,602 by July 2022, the latest available estimate.
The source from whom Berwick is seeking its own census tells a different story.
Louisiana’s population estimate program, operated by LSU’s AgCenter and the university’s Sociology Department, estimated Berwick’s July 2022 population at exactly 400 more than the Census Bureau said: 5,002.
Dr. J. Matthew Fannin is an assistant professor in LSU’s Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Department. He’s the man whom the Berwick resolution asks to conduct the town’s census.
Fannin said the state program conducts yearly population estimates for parishes and municipalities anyway, providing numbers that the Louisiana Treasurer’s Office uses to disburse money from the Parish Transportation Trust Fund and the Fire Insurance Fund for cities.
The state program bases its estimates on a different data set than the Census Bureau uses, including utility hook-ups and building permits.
“The reality is the type of data they have to submit is going to vary because of their resources,” Fannin said.
The state population estimates for July in any particular year are generally released in April the following year.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting:
—The council passed two resolutions asking for a total of about $2.9 million in state capital outlay funding for infrastructure projects.
One resolution seeks $2.3 million for upgraded water lines on James, Hebert, Palmer, Hogan, Trevino, Nicklaus, Jacobs, Canton, Fourth, Pacific, Oregon, Watkins, Russo, Young, Todd, Erlich and Versen streets.
The other resolution asks for $540,000 for sewer system rehabilitation on Fourth, Sixth, Texas, Francis and Utah streets.
—The council heard that the Berwick and Patterson governments have agreed to connect their natural gas systems so that Patterson gas could be used when pressure in west Berwick is low. The main gas line into Berwick enters from the east.