District lines are shifted

New political district boundaries were unanimously approved by the Grady County Board of Commissioners Tuesday and barring any objection by the U.S. Department of Justice and with the approval of the Georgia General Assembly the redistricting plan for the county and board of education districts will be official with the 2012 election cycle.
County commissioners hosted a public hearing and only Peter Wright, of Stephens Road, spoke out on the redistricting plan. Wright approved of the proposed new district lines.
Although there did not appear to be much public interest in the shifting of political boundaries Commissioner Al Ball commented, “I’m happy we opened the process up to the public. It shows our integrity and although not many took advantage of it we provided the public the opportunity to comment and be involved in the decision. Not many came, but all had the chance to participate.”
The proposed new district map  puts all of the western half of the city of Cairo in District 4 which was previously in District 2, maintains basically the same lines for District 5, enlarges the boundaries of District 1 and shrinks District 3.
Reapportionment is necessary every decade due to population growth or decline. The ideal population for each of the five districts would be 5,002. Based on the proposed map which commissioners approved Tuesday, the largest district would be District 3 with 5,085 and the smallest would be District 1 with 4,899.