Clark County approves new map for board reps

A preliminary supervisory redistricting plan has been approved by the Clark County Board of Supervisors, and will now be reviewed by affected local municipalities and the public. A final public hearing on the proposed maps will be held on Oct. 28 at the Greenwood Fire Hall, with final county board approval planned for Nov. 9.

Every 10 years, after the federal census is conducted, counties across the country redraw their legislative representation maps. Supervisory district boundary lines are adjusted based on changes in local population, as shown in new census block data released by the federal government.

In recent weeks, a redistricting committee chaired by Supervisor Butch Trunkel of Willard met several times to apply the new census data to district maps. Most of the 29 county supervisory districts remain largely as they were for the past decade, although some boundaries shifted to include either more or less area, depending on local population counts.

Each of the county’s 29 districts has a population within 5 percent of 1,195 constituents. One parameter of redistricting is for each supervisor to represent approximately the same number of residents. Other goals of a redistricting committee are to ensure districts are contiguous, that municipalities such as townships are kept wholly within a district whenever possible, and that previous districts are maintained as much as possible.

Although Clark County’s population grew only modestly between 2010 and 2020, populations did change from parts of the county to others. That led to some boundary changes.

Trunkel said the committee considered various map scenarios and settled on the one proposed as the best given all conditions. Some supervisors — including Art Petke of Withee and Arlene Kodl of Thorp — expressed displeasure with changes to their district boundaries, but Trunkel said it’s difficult to maintain all lines as they were.

“Everybody’s going to have a change” in their district boundaries, he said.

Supervisor Bryce Luchterhand of Unity said adjusting boundaries is troublesome, as a change in one district means a change in the adjacent ones, too.

“You’ll see that when you change one part of a district to accommodate someone, that has a cascading effect all the way across,” Luchterhand said.

Supervsior Jerome Krempasky of Greenwood said the proposed new map creates several scenarios in the county where a township has not only two or three county supervisory districts, but also two school districts. That could create election headaches, he said.

“Every other year, they’re going to have five ballots,” Krempasky said. “How easy is it going to be for an election clerk to grab the wrong ballot?”

The preliminary plan was approved on Sept. 9 on a 24-4 vote, with Kodl, Petke, Krempasky and Al Bauer of Willard voting against it. The maps will now be sent to muncipalities for their review and feedback, and the public has a final chance to have a say at the Oct. 28 public hearing in Greenwood.