Sonoma County residents started receiving their 2010 Census forms today. But some addresses, they say, are wrong – as in they don’t even have the right city.

Virginia Pressler, a Santa Rosa teacher, first alerted me to the problem a week ago. She has lived in Santa Rosa for 18 years, but she said that the address on the preliminary mailer sent out last week had her listed as a Kenwood resident. Everything else was right, however. “I’m wondering if anyone else has this situation and what I should do,” she wrote.  “I tried the (Census) Web site but could not find a solution.”

When I got home that night, I discovered that my preliminary letter – the one alerting us to the fact the Census form was coming this week – also had us listed as Kenwood. We’ve lived in Santa Rosa (Rincon Valley) for more than 11 years.

I wrote to Pressler suggesting that it may have just been a malfunction for the 95409 Zip code and that they would probably fix it when the regular forms went out. Not so. Pressler said her Census form arrived today, and it still has her listed as Kenwood.

We’re also running a letter to the editor on Wednesday from a Rohnert Park resident, Debbie Bailey, who says her Census form lists her as being in Cotati. She’s lived in Rohnert Park for 37 years.

Bailey said she was able to connect with someone at the Census bureau who told her to “just correct the address on the form.”

Hopefully, others will, too. If not, look for Kenwood and Cotati to suddenly become their own Congressional districts – due to a mysterious population surge.

Anybody else having this problem?

–          Paul Gullixson