MARSHALL — This year, Minnesota is updating its voting districts — and it’s a process that goes down to the county and local levels.

Now that the city of Marshall has made a decision to keep its current city council wards, it’s Lyon County’s turn to look at its commissioner districts.

On Tuesday, Lyon County commissioners set a public hearing date in April to talk about redistricting. Lyon County Administrator Loren Stomberg said the county can’t officially take action on redistricting without getting certified information on the city of Marshall’s new voting ward boundaries. However, Marshall City Clerk Kyle Box said the county will likely receive that certification this week.

According to data presented at Tuesday’s county board meeting, Lyon County had a total population of 25,269 in 2020. That was down from the 2010 census of 25,857.

Only two of Lyon County’s five commissioner districts had population growth over the past 10 years. Population in Commissioner District 2, which includes Lake Marshall Township and part of the city of Marshall, grew by 126.

Commissioner District 2, which includes Lynd Township, the city of Lynd and part of the city of Marshall, grew by 340 people. Commissioners Steve Ritter and Paul Graupmann represent Commissioner Districts 2 and 3, respectively.

Commissioner District 4, which is made up of the northern part of Lyon County and is represented by Gary Crowley, had a population degrease of 249. Commissioner District 5, which is made up of the southern part of Lyon County and is represented by Rick Anderson, had a population decrease of 242.

Commissioner District 1, which includes Fairview Township and part of the city of Marshall, also had a population decrease, of 563. However, this district includes Marshall’s Ward 1, which the city of Marshall claims was undercounted in the 2020 census. Ward 1 includes the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University, which was unusually empty on census day because of the COVID pandemic.

Commissioner District 1 is represented by Charlie Sanow.

Stomberg said the goal for the county will be to make sure its commissioner districts are as even in population as possible, and have compact and contiguous borders. The redistricting needs to be done by April 26.

In order to move forward with the redistricting process, Lyon County would first need certification from the city of Marshall on its voting wards, Stomberg said. Then they would need to hold a public hearing for the county commissioner districts.

Commissioners voted to set the hearing for 10:15 a.m. on April 19.

Box said the city sent out a certified resolution re-establishing the Marshall voting ward boundaries this week. The county will likely receive the certified resolution soon, he said.

On March 8, members of the Marshall City Council voted to keep the city of Marshall’s current voting ward boundaries. Based on the results of the 2020 census, the city’s population had not changed enough to require redistricting.