It is the story of two boom towns, except one of them is not booming at all, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Numbers released today by the Census Bureau show that Gardner is continuing its impressive population growth as Johnson County marches ever southward, and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe prepares to build a mega rail yard.

But the same report shows that Junction City, home to an expanding Fort Riley, has lost more population than any other city in the state.

Junction City leaders are convinced the Census Bureau has underestimated the town’s population. Census officials estimated that the city lost 1,378 residents in the last year, and had a 2007 population of 15,576.

City leaders believe the population is closer to 18,000, and plan to appeal the census estimate.

“We do not believe we’re going down,” said Carol Gould, city spokeswoman. “We know we’re going up. We have all the indicators to prove it.”

Gould said sales taxes, water meter connections and building permits are all up significantly.

In Gardner, the population growth is the continuation of a long-running story.

Over the past five years, Gardner’s growth rate has been higher than any other city’s in the state.It has grown 52 percent in the last five years.

“We’re definitely in the commuting region now,” said Fred Sherman, the city’s director of community development. “Gardner is not way out there in a lot of people’s minds anymore.”

Other facts and figures from the Census report:

¢ Basehor had the highest growth rate in the state in 2007, at 7.5 percent.

¢ Wichita added the most people to its ranks in the last year with 4,291 additional residents.

Next was Olathe at 3,416, Overland Park at 2,729, Manhattan at 1,589, Lenexa at 1,181, Derby at 938, Gardner at 871 and Lawrence at 742.

¢ The Census measured the population of 627 cities in Kansas – 189 added population while 339 lost population.