Pine Bluff may soon have realigned voting wards after the city council meets Jan. 17.
The council, meeting as a whole with its three-member planning and development committee Monday night, voted unanimously to recommend for approval one of two redistricting plans suggested by Jerre George, director of the Southeast Arkansas Planning Commission.
George said the the selected realignment plan would have minimum boundary changes among the existing four wards, but would greatly reduce the population differences.
Currently, Ward 2 counts 13,222 residents while Ward 4 has 12,975, Ward 3 includes 11,797 and Ward 1 has 11,089.
“Based upon existing boundaries, the deviation in population between Ward 1 and Ward 2 is 17.4 percent above the generally accepted 10-percent threshold,” George said.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The population figures within the proposed regrouping would be 12,585 in Ward 2; 12,434 in Ward 1; 12,087 in Ward 4; and 11,977 in Ward 3. George said the population deviation with the entire plan is less than 5 percent.
Ward 2 Alderman Wayne Easterly expressed some discomfort with the proposal, saying he would suggest that Ward 1 should draw additional Ward 2 residents. Easterly said Ward 1 has been losing residents “in a pattern it’s followed in the last two decades.”
Easterly estimated that without a Ward 1 expansion, ward counts could be badly “out of line” 10 years from now “with Ward 2 increases” he foresees through the next decade.
“I don’t agree with you,” Ward 3 Alderman Bill Brumett told Easterly.
“We don’t know what will transpire in the next 10 years,” Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. interjected while issuing his support for the measure.
Under the proposal, the present Ward 4 would lose some areas to Wards 1 and 3. Ward 1 would also consume small portions of Wards 2 and 3. Ward 2 would acquire limited areas from Ward 3 as well.
All of the wards will be majority black within the proposal. The respective counts of blacks, whites and others are:
WARD 1 – 10,966; 1,155; 313.
WARD 2 – 9,384; 2,740; 461.
WARD 3 – 8,633; 2,971; 373.
WARD 4 – 7,963; 3,623; 501.