Officials Mull Redistricting
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With the 2010 census totals reporting about 30,000 more Madison County resident than the 2000 census, county commissioners are taking a look at the lines for both the county commission and school board districts. “What we want to do is make the school board districts more compatible with the county commission districts…so they don’t overlap as much as they have in the past,” said Commissioner Gary Deaton, District 4, Madison County . Commissioner Deaton said currently there are nine school board members with six districts. The new plan would reduce the amount of districts to five. While current proposals show the amount of commissioners won’t change, adjustments will be made to the boundary lines of each. “The eastern part of the city had lost some population, the southern part of the county may have lost a little and the major growth was in the northern districts, everyone’s aware of that…. so at the end of the day each commissioner should represent about 3900 people, that’s the goal,” said Commissioner Deaton. He said while he thought redistricting would have very little impact on citizens, it may cause political changes. “Well if you got a republican controlled body…you would expect them to maintain that control in the way they lay the boundaries,” said Commissioner Deaton. “Well it’s the government and I believe the government is going to do what it wants to….it don’t matter what I think,” said Linda Taylor, a resident of Jackson. Commissioners plan to finish the redrawing of county lines by October 15.
