Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Village of Bridgewater To Dissolve on Jan 1, 2015 But It Could Still Remain a Census Geography

While the Village of Bridgewater voted to dissolve itself on Jan 1, 2015, that doesn't mean it has to disappear completely. While the nearly 200 year old village will no longer be an incorporated village, it could still become a Census Designated Place.

Census Designated Places (CDPs) are the statistical counterparts of incorporated villages, and are delineated to provide data for settled concentrations of population that are identifiable by name but are not legally incorporated under the laws of the state in which they are located. The boundaries of CDPs usually are defined in cooperation with local officials and generally updated prior to each decennial census. These boundaries, which usually coincide with visible features, have no legal status and may change from one decennial census to the next. There are no population size requirements for CDPs.

So possibly by the next census (2020) a CDP covering the area formerly known as the Village of Bridgewater could be in place, in order to still provide statistical data about that "settled concentration of population".

The village may dissolve but data on that area can continue to be collected and reported if it were to be designated as a CDP!