The federal census every 10 years requires redistricting plans to ensure voting wards have roughly the same number of people.
Ward 4 City Councilor Timothy Purington helped Walnut Street residents with a compromise.HOLYOKE – About 1,200 people would shift voting wards in a redistricting plan the city has filed with the state, City Clerk Susan M. Egan said.
If the state approves, the redistricting plan will take effect in January and residents who are registered voters among the 1,200 will get notices in the mail identifying their new voting places.
Voters will continue to cast ballots at their current polling places in city elections this fall, Egan said.
Redistricting plans are required after the federal census is released every 10 years. The plans are needed to account for population shifts and ensure all voting precincts have roughly the same number of residents.
The 2010 census showed the city’s population to be 39,880, up slightly from the federal 2000 census total of 39,838.
With people having moved around, the task facing officials was to ensure each of the seven wards has between 5,412 and 5,981 people.
Since each ward here has two voting precincts, that means each precinct must have between 2,705 and 2,990 people.
Cities and towns had to file redistricting plans with the state Local Election District Review Commission by Wednesday.
Residents of the part of Walnut Street between Hampshire and Cabot streets succeeded in persuading city councilors to change a plan that would have split their street down the middle.
Under that plan, those who live on the even-numbered side of part of Walnut Street would have gone from being part of Ward 4 to Ward 1.
They argued at a hearing with councilors May 31 that their neighborhood is cohesive, they attend neighborhood crime watch meetings together and it was important to them that the city avoid splitting the street.
Ward 4 Councilor Timothy W. Purington devised a compromise that the City Council incorporated into the redistricting plan that was finally approved.
Purington’s plan kept the Hampshire and Cabot streets part of Walnut Street in Ward 4 and moved four blocks of Ward 4 around Appleton and Beech streets to Ward 1.
The council approved the redistricting plan 8-5.
Voting in favor of the plan were councilors Kevin A. Jourdain, Donald R. Welch, Linda L. Vacon, Rebecca Lisi, Joseph M. McGiverin, Peter R. Tallman, Aaron M. Vega and Purington, Egan said.
Voting against the plan were councilors Diosdado Lopez, Todd A. McGee, Anthony M. Keane, John J. O’Neill and Brenna E. Murphy, she said.
Councilors Patricia C. Devine and James M. Leahy were absent, she said.
Among other changes, six blocks would be moved from Ward 6 to Ward 7, from Beacon to Hampden streets, and from Thorpe Avenue to Northampton Street.