City Council approves new ward boundaries

MT. PLEASANT — The Mt. Pleasant City Council approved the proposed ordinance for ward boundary adjustment in a Tuesday meeting.

“Mt. Pleasant grew by close to 600 people. We now have a population of more than 9,000 people,” Mt. Pleasant Building and Zoning Administrator Jack Swarm said. “In Iowa, most people are moving away from the rural areas to larger cities, as a result, most of rural Iowa is losing population. Here in Mt. Pleasant we have beaten that trend and we grew. That’s great news.

“The areas in town that have grown have to be identified and the ward boundaries redrawn to reflect that growth.”

Included in that growth was the building of a nursing home and apartments, along with an increase of the student population at Iowa Wesleyan University.

The ward boundary adjustment happens every 10 years after a Census is completed and after the State Legislature redraws their boundaries.

The counties then redraw their boundaries according to census results. This is done to balance the population within the wards.

“The wards now have around 2,300 people per ward,” explained Swarm. Each ward elects a City Council representative, and in Mt. Pleasant there are two at-large representatives that are elected by the city population, and four not at-large seats.

The approval of the ward boundary adjustment will now be sent to the state for final acceptance.