Sunny or stormy, a group of people will work from midnight to 7 a.m. the last day of March, searching for the outdoor homeless–in tents, under bridges, in sleeping bags near churches. Yep the census bureau strikes again–happens every decade. From March until (and maybe into) June, men and women of all ages will be putting your tax dollars at work–to make sure every community gets all the tax dollars it rightfully deserves.

The forms went out in the mail in early March; now, census workers will be on the prowl for non-returnees (and, of course, people living outdoors, who didn’t receive them to begin with). Livonia-based George Linkner, a cheery Ford retiree (finance, 35 years) is directing the Ann Arbor campaign along with others. “I love this work!” he says, comparing it to being a “ringmaster in a circus.”

Ann Arbor is especially interesting, Linker observes, because the students have to be counted–for the census’s purpose, they’re considered residents of Michigan, not of their home states.”Publicize that!” he urges. So the census team (Linker says regretfully he’s not allowed to say how many are assigned here) will be hitting the dorms and the student ghetto apartments.

Linker is also prohibited from saying just how the census folk persuade surly citizens to sign on, except to say, “We do a soft sell.”