The Pike County Commission will hold a public hearing on Sept. 12 regarding the redistricting map that will determine the Commission’s district lines based on the 2010 census.

The public hearing will be at 4:30 p.m. in the boardroom on the second floor of the Pike County Health Department building. Following the public hearing, the Pike County Commission could adopt the redistricting map at its regular meeting at 6 p.m.

“The Commission has a deadline of Sept. 15 to adopt a redistricting map so, in all probability, they will vote to adopt a map at their regular meeting on Sept. 12,” said Harry Sanders, Pike County administrator. “If there is a delay, it can’t be a lengthy one because we have to meet the deadline.”

Sanders said the public hearing is an important one because it involves the entire population of the county.

“We encourage the public to come and voice their opinions,” he said. “We welcome the input of the public. The two redistricting maps that are under consideration are available at the Pike County Commission office for those who would like to come by and look at them.”

One of the maps to be considered is the “joint” venture map that was agreed upon in a large part by the Commission and the Pike County Board of Education when they met on July 21.

“I would say that they were in 99 percent agreement on the map,” Sanders said. “The discussions involved Districts 4 and 5 and the changes that were needed to come to an agreement on those district lines.”

The “joint” map, with minor changes in the Districts 4 and 5, was adopted by the Pike County BOE on Monday, Aug. 29.

The other map to be considered is a map that the County Commissioners approved to be presented at the public hearing.

“That map has a greater degree of population variance than the ‘joint’ map,” Sanders said.

The redistricting map that was adopted by the Pike County Board of Education has a population distribution with a variance of only .1 to .2 percent among the six districts.

At the July 21 meeting, the Commissioners and the Pike County board members were in agreement on the district lines for Districts 1, 2, 3 and 6 but not on Districts 4 ad 5.

Sanders said that Commissioner Ray Goodson, District 4, and Commissioner Charlie Harris, District 5, have continued to meet in an effort to come to an agreeable decision.

“I expect the Commission to come to a conclusion on Sept. 12,” Sanders said.

He did not discount the possibility of the Commission accepting the map adopted by the Pike County BOE.