If you go

What: Celebration marking the start of U.S. census operations

When: 2 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Westminster Census Office, 10860 Dover St., Westminster

Details: Westminster Mayor Nancy McNally, Boulder Mayor Susan Osborne, Denver Regional Census Center Deputy Director Russ Frum and Our Center of Longmont Executive Director Edwina Salazar will talk about the importance of census participation.

The Westminster office, which officially opens Tuesday, will serve Broomfield and Boulder counties.

It will be three more months before 2010 census forms start appearing in mailboxes, but workers with the U.S. Census Bureau already are ramping up their efforts.

On Tuesday, a census office dedicated to the north Denver metro area -- including Boulder and Broomfield counties -- will officially open, and starting in January, census workers will become much more visible in area communities.

Census spokeswoman Deborah Cameron said the increased visibility is designed to help the public understand how the census works and why it's important to participate.

"The census really can't happen without the support of community members to make sure everyone gets counted," Cameron said.

The Constitution mandates that a census be conducted every 10 years. The population numbers from the census are used to determine political representation and how up to $400 billion in federal money for schools, hospitals, roads and job training will be distributed.

Census offices -- known as "Be Counted" sites -- will open in community centers and other gathering places to answer questions and help people who need assistance filling out the forms, including help translating them, according to Joyce Bignell, the Westminster office manager. Mobile census vans will also make scheduled stops at community fairs and events.

Bignell said the main goal of the office is to use education and outreach efforts to encourage community members to fill out the census forms.

"We want people to know the census is under way," she said. "Hopefully, people will respond to the increased visibility and understand better how important the census is to their community."

According to Carrie Haverfield, a public affairs worker for the Boulder County commissioners' office, local governments lose an estimated $850 a year in state and federal funding for every person not counted in the census.

"We want to ensure we can get as much money as we can to use for roads, hospitals, schools and other services," she said.Census forms will start to arrive in the mail in mid-March and are due the first week of April. Census workers will follow up in person at homes where residents don't return the form.

Cameron said census workers are making special efforts to reach traditionally hard-to-count groups, including immigrants and college students.

Immigrants may not understand the form, or they may worry about filling it out if their paperwork is not in order. Cameron said all census information is confidential.

College students often think their parents will include them at their permanent residence. Cameron said everyone should fill out the form where they are living on April 1.

Haverfield said others put off the form because they think it will take too long. She said forms should take no more than 10 minutes to fill out.

Contact Camera Staff Writer Erica Meltzer at 303-473-1355 or meltzere@dailycamera.com.