Rainbow MWD holds public hearing on revised division boundaries

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

The Rainbow Municipal Water District held a public hearing on new boundaries for director divisions Jan. 25.

The hearing was a nonvoting item, although Rainbow’s Feb. 22 meeting will likely include a vote on the new boundaries. “You have to have two meetings for that,” said Rainbow general manager Tom Kennedy.

The Rainbow Municipal Water District has five divisions with one board member from each division. The 2020 census requires adjustment of the division boundaries to ensure that each division has as equal a population as possible. The maximum variance between the highest-populated division and the lowest-populated division can be no more than 10%.

The Rainbow Municipal Water District had a population of 19,611 when the 2010 census was taken. The 2020 census increased the total population to 23,533. The target population for each division is 4,707. Currently Division 1 has 4,454 residents, Division 2 has a population of 5,016, Division 3 has 4,150 people, Division 4 has 5,485 residents, and Division 5 has 4,428 people. That creates a variance of 28.37% between the most-populated and least-populated divisions.

Boundary adjustments were discussed at five previous Rainbow board meetings and also at 14 committee meetings. Rainbow staff received feedback from interested parties at those meetings and developed a proposed set of division boundaries.

The proposed new map has 4,620 people in Division 1, 4,716 residents in Division 2, 4,854 people in Division 3, 4,653 residents in Division 4, and 4,691 people in Division 5. The variance between the highest-populated and least-populated divisions is 4.98%.