SAFFORD — The Graham County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the new district boundaries for the supervisors and community college board as required following the U.S. Census.
The board previously hired National Demographics Corporation to analyze the Census data and make recommended changes to the districts. The goal is to have no greater than a 10-percent deviation in population between the districts.
“We realized we don’t have the in-house ability to do it. So we had a consultant come in and make some recommendations,” Supervisor Paul David said.
The Census counts showed that Supervisory District 1 — which includes a small portion of Safford, all of the northern part of the county and the western part of the county that includes a portion of the San Carlos Apache Reservation — was reduced by 3.12 percent, while District 2 — which includes Thatcher, Pima and Fort Thomas — grew by 7.95 percent and District 3 — which included most of Safford and east to Solomon and San Jose, plus south to Bonita — decreased by 4.82 percent.
To bring the districts in line with the requirement, a small section of District 2, of about 700 residents in the area of Fort Grant Prison, is now under District 3. District 1 remains the same as previous years.
“It has the least disturbance to what is there currently, which was kind of our goal going in,” said County Manager Dustin Welker.
Welker said it appeared the community college districts were not changed in 2010, so the deviation between districts was significantly greater, at 24.5 percent at the upper end.
“These changes are more sweeping, so there’s a chance your board member has changed,” David said. “So please do check before you vote; you might be surprised who is on your ballot.”
