Rural Renewal Monitor
With Squeeze on Credit, Microlending Blossoms
Fri, 07/30/2010 - 15:45 — Casey FrancisThe New York Times | By Kristina Shevory | July 28, 2010
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Amanda Keppert is convinced that she would have lost Mandy’s Korner, her hot dog stand in San Jose, Calif., if she had not received a type of loan that is more common in the third world than in the United States.
Last year, as fewer people ate out and layoffs mounted in Silicon Valley, sales plunged more than 60 percent at the once-thriving Mandy’s Korner. “My business was drowning and I was afraid it would go under,” Ms. Keppert said. While she picked up catering work at a local concert site, it wasn’t enough to pay her expenses. She had invested all of her savings in the business, and she did not want to see it go under.
But her loan applications were rejected repeatedly at banks in San Jose. Then she found Opportunity Fund, a local microlender that has teamed up with Kiva.org, one of the best-known international microlenders. Kiva, which has lent more than $150 million in 53 countries, had just begun a pilot program lending to business owners in the United States.
Through Kiva, Ms. Keppert obtained a $6,500 loan that she has three years to pay back and that carries a 6 percent interest rate. She used the money to buy an ice maker, a generator to save on propane costs and large signs to advertise her business.
Before the economic collapse, microfinance — the granting of very small loans, mostly to poor people — was a concept most closely associated with the developing world. But tight credit and the recession have increased the demand for smaller loans in the United States, giving microlending a higher profile and broadening its appeal. Both Kiva and Grameen Bank, a microfinance group that is based in Bangladesh and was started by Muhammad Yunus, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his groundbreaking work in microlending, have widened their lending to Americans.
Small number of doctors face unique challenges in rural America
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 10:11 — Casey FrancisEvansville Courier & Press (Ind.) | By Ella Johnson | July 17, 2010
ROCKPORT, Ind. — Having grown up in a small town, Dr. Lloyd "Pat" McGinnis was happy to open a private medical practice in Rockport 10 years ago when he retired from the military after nearly 30 years as an Air Force physician.
As one of only five doctors in Spencer County, a rural area of Southwestern Indiana with about 20,000 people, his caseload quickly grew to 3,000 patients.
McGinnis, a family medicine and geriatrics specialist, was excited about being able to continue to practice medicine — unlike some of his colleagues who grew tired of seeing patients toward the end of their military careers.
What he wasn't prepared for were the extra time and hassles that came with treating patients who had little or no health insurance to cover the cost.
Doctors throughout the country are struggling with the same issues of providing quality care to patients with limited incomes in an environment of uncertainly as major provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are phased in over the next five years.
Rural entrepreneurship key to economic recovery in England
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 09:59 — Casey FrancisSmall biz Survival: Rural and Small Town Business Resource Blog | By Becky McCray | July 11, 2010
This week, a monumental report on rural England's problems and rural potential hit the media with headlines like "Rural England key to economic recovery."
Rural England is leading the way to economic recovery, thanks to high levels of entrepreneurship in the countryside, a report has revealed.
I love that! Now that the city slickers who run our banks and hedge funds have pitched the world into a financial crisis, and a former Government run by townies has left the Treasury coffers bare, we should turn to country folk to pull us out of the mire!
This burst of rural news was started by the release of a major report by the Commission for Rural Communities.
State of the countryside 2010 provides a comprehensive description of social, economic and environmental conditions and changes across rural England, highlighting the main challenges and future trends for government and other organisations.
Read the announcement by the Commission for Rural Communities, or download your own copy of the report.
Plains towns fighting hard to hang onto rural grocers
Sat, 07/10/2010 - 08:51 — Casey FrancisThe Denver Post | By Karen Auge | June 27, 2010
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Osborne's Supermarket checker Dorothy Osborne, left, sacker Roger Trainer and customer Betty Hamilton puzzle over a price at the Hugo store that's been open for nearly 35 years. | Photo by Judy DeHaas, The Denver Post |
HUGO — The instant she saw Virginia Petersen propelling her motorized scooter between aisles, a heaping basket of groceries teetering on her lap and oxygen tank rolling alongside her, Megan Hohl moved in.
"Virginia! Are you finished shopping? Let me take this up to the front for you," Hohl said, and walked the basket up to one of the two checkout stands in Osborne's Supermarket, which her grandparents opened 35 years ago.
This is grocery shopping, Hugo-style, and it hasn't changed much since Creighton and Dorothy Osborne opened the store in 1975. Nor will it, if Hohl and her husband, Lucas, have anything to say about it.
It's more about keeping Hugo — population 771 — going than selling milk and bread, Hohl said. "We have a great responsibility."
The idea that getting healthy food or staying fit can be a problem in the hinterlands contradicts most everyone's idealized image of rural life: fresh air, hard work, wheat rippling in the breeze.
The truth is, rural counties, especially on the Eastern Plains, have some of the state's highest rates of obesity and diabetes, along with lower rates of exercise and healthy eating.
That's just part of the reason small communities in eastern Colorado, in Kansas, in Nebraska and across the nation are fighting hard to hang onto stores like Osborne's Supermarket, which serve as vital links between rural residents and nutrition and provide economic and social sustenance, too.
"It's an issue, first, of food access, and secondly, of economic development," said David Procter, director of Kansas State University's Center of Engagement and Community Development.
High Speed for the Sparsely Wired
Sat, 07/10/2010 - 08:34 — Casey FrancisThe New York Times | By SUSANNA G. KIM | July 9, 2010
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For Cynthia K. Wegener, the owner of a horse farm in rural Kansas, using the Internet often means staring at a blank screen waiting for a page to load. | Photo by Matthew Staver for the New York Times |
Government stimulus spending is a contentious issue right now in Washington. But the $7.2 billion in the last stimulus package for extending high-speed Internet access is just beginning to be spent, and the beneficiaries could not be happier.
Cynthia K. Wegener and her husband, owners of a farm and horse-breeding business in western Kansas, will be able to upload a photograph of a horse to show a potential buyer in seconds, not the 20 to 30 minutes they now need with dial-up service. “I just cannot begin to tell you how frustrating it is to do anything with it,” she said.
And in remote Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in Alaska, with limited Internet access, the program will bring more fundamental changes, expanding the health care options, for example, to allow doctors in Anchorage, 400 miles to the east, to see patients via videoconference.
“This is the first time in my 25 years in health care where technology has a direct impact,” David P. Hodges, the chief information officer for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation. “It sure gives you a new perspective on what you do for a living.”
The types of Internet activities that most Americans take for granted — watching videos, downloading songs, social networking — are out of reach for millions of homes across the United States. These people — many in poor, rural pockets — either have outmoded dial-up Internet service or have no affordable high-speed service. Sometimes the nearest high-speed connection is at the local library, 10 miles away.
Old Movie Houses Find Audience in the Plains
Mon, 07/05/2010 - 10:31 — Casey FrancisThe New York Times | By Patricia Leigh Brown | July 4, 2010
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LANGDON, N. D. — Every Friday through Monday night, from her perch behind the Skittles and the M&M’s, Amy Freier awaits the faithful at the historic Roxy Theater. There is Dale Klein, the school bus driver (large Diet Pepsi with a refill). And there is Jeannette Schefter, the social worker (large plain popcorn, medium Diet).
“You know who comes,” said Ms. Freier, one of 200 volunteers in this town of roughly 2,000 who are keeping the Roxy’s neon glowing. “They’re part of the theater.”
In an age of streaming videos and DVDs, the small town Main Street movie theater is thriving in North Dakota, the result of a grass-roots movement to keep storefront movie houses, with their jewel-like marquees and facades of careworn utility, at the center of community life.
From Crosby (population 1,000), near the Saskatchewan border, to Mayville, in the Red River Valley, tickets are about $5, the buttered popcorn $1.25 and the companionship free.
“If we were in Los Angeles or Phoenix, the only reason to go to a movie would be to see it,” said Cecile Wehrman, a newspaper editor who, with members of the nonprofit Meadowlark Arts Councilresuscitated the Dakota in Crosby, its plush interiors now a chic black, red and silver. “But in a small town, the theater is like a neighborhood. It’s the see-and-be-seen, bring everyone and sit together kind of place.”
Banner County plans to provide its own power
Fri, 06/25/2010 - 11:18 — Casey FrancisStar Herald | By MAUNETTE LOEKS | June 17, 2010
As strong winds kept the flags flying over the Banner County Courthouse flapping Thursday, Banner County Highway Superintendent Toby Tyler talked about harnessing that wind to power the building.Banner County plans to lead the way to use wind energy to power its courthouse and a roads department building located on the same site. Last week, the Nebraska Energy Office announced that Banner County had been awarded an $82,360 renewable energy grant to construct a 20-kilowatt wind turbine.
Banner County was the only county to receive a renewable energy grant.
“Banner County and its commissioners are a lot more progressive than people think,” Tyler said, adding that commissioners decided to be proactive in encouraging wind energy within the county. The county’s foray into wind energy began when companies began looking at the county for a possible wind farm.
Commissioner Milo Sandberg said proposals heard by the county have as many as 1,250 wind turbines considered for a wind farm. Tyler said he began working with the Banner County Wind Energy Association, a group of landowners being proactive in bringing wind energy to the county.
Rural Entrepreneurs on the Rise
Fri, 06/25/2010 - 09:44 — Casey FrancisThe Internet and Non-Profit Organizations Have Aided Rural Businesspeople With Start-Ups
ABC News | By WADE HILLIGOSS | June 20. 2010
Five years ago, Katrina Frey wanted to make a little extra money, so she started cooking up homemade gourmet jellies and syrups. Then she sold them out of the back of her van at a farmer's market in western Nebraska. She made $5,000 in her first year of business.
Today, after taking her venture online and moving to a building on Main Street in the small town of Stapleton, the mother of three whose husband is a farmer now grosses $50,000 a year.
John Marquis started his entrepreneurial journey four years ago in the basement of his Ogallala, Neb., home, recreating a vintage men's fragrance. Today, six online vendors sell his Ogallala Bay Rum aftershave and cologne to customers in 50 states and 31 countries.
Marquis and Frey are rural entrepreneurs who have created thriving businesses despite the bleak economy and their out-of-the-way locations. They're not the only ones. From 2008 to 2009, the number of self-employed Americans increased by 200,000 to 8.9 million, according to Challenger Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm.
Grocery closings leave rural residents few options
Fri, 06/25/2010 - 09:30 — Casey FrancisThe Washington Post | By BETSY BLANEY, AP | June 25, 2010
TURKEY, Texas -- Craig Chancellor tried everything he could, but last November he finally closed the Turkey General Store, leaving the small Texas Panhandle town without a grocery.
Although Chancellor tried to trim overhead and relocated a small cafe he owned into the store, he couldn't make it work. He paid more for salaries and utilities than he made in sales, and finally, lost more than he could afford.
"It didn't play the way we wanted it to," the 48-year-old Chancellor said. "People understand why we had to do it, but they hate it."
Researchers said Chancellor's story is being repeated across the country as rural stores struggle to survive amid competition from distant supercenters and relatively high operating costs. The grocery industry and government don't keep statistics on rural store closures, but experts said a long-running trend seems to be picking up speed. A survey by Kansas State University backed up that belief, finding that more than 38 percent of the 213 groceries in Kansas towns of less than 2,500 closed between 2006 and 2009.
It isn't just a store that goes when groceries close, said David Proctor, who studies rural communities at Kansas State. Such closures rob towns of their vitality, with the loss of gathering places and sales tax revenue to fund local governments.
DOT Gets Earful On Rural Transportation
Fri, 06/18/2010 - 09:19 — Web Editorby Leslie Wollack | National League of Cities and Towns
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Rural road in Montana. Photo by Jimmy Emerson and used here under Creative Commons. Click here to see more of Emerson's work. |
Federal transportation officials continued their national listening tour with a meeting last week in Bismarck, N.D. Headlined by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, the multi-state tour is seeking perspectives on reauthorization of the federal surface transportation program, which expired last September and remains in limbo due to a lack of national consensus on a new direction for transportation programs and a shortage of transportation revenues.
Secretary LaHood emphasized his interest in hearing about the needs of rural America during his visit to Bismarck and his commitment to enacting a new transportation law, but warned that with limited resources, all states will need to set priorities.
“There’s going to be limited resources. In some cases, some people are going to have to set aside this issue or that issue,” said LaHood.
Connie Sprynczynatyk, executive director of the North Dakota League of Cities, provided the welcome for the federal, state and local officials invited to attend the meeting and provided input on the next surface transportation legislation and expressed satisfaction that LaHood came to hear about rural issues.
“This meeting was a great opportunity to discuss with Secretary LaHood and his key staff the strong interest among local leaders in America’s investment in transportation systems,” noted Sprynczynatyk. “The other stops on this reauthorization tour have been metropolitan cities, so it was particularly important to talk about the issues in rural America. The need to maintain connectivity and the need for the longer planning horizon that we get with a multi-year highway bill were two recurrent themes throughout the afternoon.”
Vilsack: Broadband Funds Will Improve Life In Rural America
Thu, 06/10/2010 - 13:34 — Web EditorBy the United States Department of Agriculture
WASHINGTON, June 9, 2010 -- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today highlighted the release of a report that details how broadband deployment funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) will improve the quality of life of over half a million rural American households. The report also states that broadband awards announced to date will create about 5,000 immediate and direct jobs.
"The Obama Administration supports the expansion of rural broadband so that all areas of the country have access to the tools necessary to spur economic development and job creation in the 21st century economy," Vilsack said. "These broadband loans and grants, provided through the Recovery Act, are critical to building and revitalizing the economy and infrastructure of rural America."
Vilsack discussed the importance of broadband deployment during last week's Rural Summit in Missouri, saying broadband will create new opportunities for rural prosperity and one of the key pillars of rebuilding and revitalizing rural America. Vilsack also noted that broadband deployment will improve educational opportunities, public safety, improve medical diagnostic services, support business development, farmers and agricultural producers. The report, Connecting Rural America, outlines the projects USDA Rural Development's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) is funding under the first round of awards made under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP).
One award, to Madison Telephone, LLC, a cooperative in Southeast Kansas, will enable broadband service to be extended to residents living in a 200 square mile area. In a letter to Secretary Vilsack, CEO Mary F. Meyer said; "We have been struggling for several years with the need to offer high speed broadband to our subscribers but simply could not afford this type of project…The opportunity of stimulus funding will allow us to provide the technology to our subscribers so they have the necessary broadband speeds to work, research, gain access to markets, weather and personal networking." She said that mapping and staking for the area has been completed and "we hope to have a plow in the ground by Labor Day."
In the first of two scheduled funding rounds, RUS awarded $1.068 billion for 68 broadband projects in 31 states and one territory. Three types of projects received awards:
- Last-mile remote projects, which will provide broadband service to households and other users in rural areas located at least 50 miles from the nearest non-rural area.
- Last-mile non-remote projects, which will provide broadband service to households and other users located less than 50 miles from the nearest non-rural area.
- Middle-mile projects, which will provide necessary "backbone" services such as interoffice transport, backhaul, Internet connectivity, or special access to rural areas.
The projects will bring broadband service to an estimated 529,249 households, 92,754 businesses and 3,332 anchor institutions across more than 172,000 square miles – a geographic area approximately the size of the state of California. Community anchors, such as schools, libraries, health care providers, colleges, and critical community facilities, provide essential services for safety, health, education and well-being for area residents. These projects will also provide services to 19 Tribal lands. A second round of successful applicants will be announced later in the 2010 fiscal year.
USDA Rural Development's Rural Utilities Service received $2.5 billion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for the Broadband Initiatives Program. Working in coordination with other Federal agencies, RUS has implemented a program to ensure that BIP funds are distributed quickly, efficiently and as Congress intended. The report provides a summary of the awards made in the first round of funding to advance the Obama Administration's commitment to improving the rural infrastructure and to enact the directives established by Congress.
USDA, through its Rural Development mission area, administers and manages more than 40 housing, business and community infrastructure and facility programs through a national network of 6,100 employees located in the nation's capital and 500 state and local offices. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural America. Rural Development has an existing portfolio of more than $138 billion in loans and loan guarantees.
Farmer paralyzed but not out
Mon, 05/31/2010 - 11:46 — Casey FrancisOmaha World-Herald | Story by Leslie Reed, Photo by Kent Sievers | May 31, 2010
PENDER, Neb. — Eric Beckman never wanted to be anything but a farmer.
After getting an associate degree in agriculture, he married a young woman from Lyons, just down the road. They moved onto the homeplace south of Pender and he started farming with his dad and uncle. He and his wife, Dana, had two children.
Then came the accident that changed everything for this northeast Nebraska farmer.
On a rainy night three years ago this month, Beckman drove two buddies over to Bancroft, Neb., about 10 miles away, to watch an Oscar De La Hoya fight on pay-per-view at a local bar.
Driving back, his truck hydroplaned on a curve and skidded into a ditch, where it caught a tree stump and flipped.
His friends walked away from the crash, but Beckman, who wasn't using a seat belt, was thrown partway out of the truck. He broke his neck and was left paralyzed from the collarbone down.
He was 31, and his life would never be the same.
But with assistance from a program that helps disabled farmers get back to work, Beckman once again is experiencing some of the simple joys of farm life.
USDA Identifies Gaps, Releases Maps Which Detail U.S. Local Meat Processing Facilities
Thu, 05/27/2010 - 09:00 — Web EditorBy USDA
WASHINGTON, May 25, 2010 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture today released a preliminary study revealing existing gaps in the regional food systems regarding the availability of slaughter facilities to small meat and poultry producers. The study by USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is a first attempt to identify areas in the U.S. where small livestock and poultry producers are concentrated but may not have access to a nearby slaughter facility.
"To support consumer demand for locally produced agricultural products, meat producers need to have access to local or regional slaughter facilities, and the study we are releasing today shows that there is often a shortage of facilities needed to bring food to market," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "The 'Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food' initiative is working to address various shortcomings in the food supply chain on behalf of our country's producers and consumers. If there is a stronger, closer link between production and consumption, there is often an economic benefit."
The data creates a county-by-county view of the continental United States, indicating the concentration of small farms raising cattle, hogs and pigs, and chicken, and also noting the location of nearby state slaughter facilities and small and very small federal slaughter establishments. The USDA defines "small slaughter establishments" as those having between 10 and 499 employees, and "very small slaughter establishments" as having fewer than 10 employees or less than $2.5 million in annual sales. For the purpose of the study, small livestock and poultry producers are those who have annual sales of $250,000 or less.
The presentation "Slaughter Availability to Small Livestock and Poultry Producers – Maps" may be found at: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/KYF_maps-050410_FOR_RELEASE.pdf. These findings are released as part of USDA's "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative, which emphasizes the need for a fundamental and critical reconnection between producers and consumers. The effort builds on the 2008 Farm Bill, which provides increases and flexibility to USDA programs in an effort to revitalize rural economies through the promotion of local food systems. Aimed at strengthening the connection between farmers and consumers, the initiative also increases local market access for farmers, and expands access to healthy food for all Americans.
Inquiries can be made to the Small Plant Help-Desk by toll-free telephone or by e-mail. The Help-Desk is open from 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. To speak to a staff specialist during this time, call 1-877-FSISHelp (1-877-374-7435). Customers may also contact the help-desk by e-mail at InfoSource@fsis.usda.gov.
For information on loan and grant programs that can be used to support local food initiatives, including initiatives involving new or existing meat and poultry slaughter facilities, contact USDA Rural Development (RD) at 1-800-670-6553. For information on RD programs on the Internet, go to www.rurdev.usda.gov. Or, visit your nearest USDA Rural Development Office.
#Bias Payments Come Too Late for Some Farmers
Wed, 05/26/2010 - 05:28 — Casey Francis
The New York Times | By Ashely Southall | May 25, 2010
On a recent Sunday in rural Macon, N.C., John W. Boyd Jr., the president of the National Black Farmers Association, went to his fourth funeral in a week.
Mr. Boyd has been burying his group’s members with bitter frequency, attending two or three funerals most weeks. Each death makes him feel as if he is running out of time.
Wrangling over the federal budget in Washington has delayed payouts from a $1.25 billion settlement that Mr. Boyd and several others helped negotiate with the federal government to compensate black farmers who claimed that the Agriculture Department had discriminated against them in making loans.
“I thought that the elderly farmers would get their money and get to live a few happy days of their lives,” Mr. Boyd, a Virginia farmer who is not a plaintiff in the settlement, said in an interview. “They deserve the money before they leave God’s earth.”
Using Social Media to Attract People To Your Rural Community
Fri, 05/21/2010 - 12:46 — Web EditorBy Mike Knutson | Reimagine Rural
Last summer, I met an individual who had moved from California to rural South Dakota. She was charged with setting up an office in the region for her employer, but the field of potential communities to locate was pretty open.
So, how did she choose? Part of the answer rested with a blog she discovered; she felt the blog helped her connect with people of similar interests and values in one community without having to move there first. But it also provided a more authentic view of the community than possible through a traditional community-based website. This isn’t a knock on traditional community-based websites. It simply acknowledges that even at their best, websites only tell part of the story. And they don’t usually help you meet people.
Is this an isolated incident or does it happens more often than we think? I don’t have research to validate an answer, but I believe the latter is more accurate. So until I find that research, I’d offer the following abbreviated list of reasons why I believe communities should include social media in their people attraction strategies.
New USDA program offers 100 percent financing on homes
Thu, 05/20/2010 - 09:42 — Casey FrancisEpriseNow.com | May 19, 2010
No down payment home financing is available through USDA Rural Development to qualifying applicants in rural areas.
Through this home loan program, potential homebuyers may purchase a new or existing home, build a home or make improvements to an existing home. The current interest rate is 4.875 percent.
“Home ownership is still the American Dream, and it continues to be realized by many rural Alabamians using our housing programs,” said Ronnie Davis, state director of USDA Rural Development in Alabama.
“Our mission and goal at USDA Rural Development in Alabama is to provide every qualified applicant the opportunity to become a successful home owner,” Davis said.
Healthcare Reports Aim to Clear Confusion for Rural Minnesotans
Thu, 05/20/2010 - 08:28 — Casey FrancisPublic News Service - MN | By Sharon Rolenc & Deb Courson | May 20, 2010
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - In the wake of health care reform, many rural small-business owners are worried that insurance mandates under the new law will drive them out of business - further weakening fragile rural economies. In an effort to clear up the confusion about what the reforms will mean for rural Americans, the Center for Rural Affairs recently released the first in a series of reports, with the first topic addressing small business concerns.
Jon Bailey, the report's author and director of theCenter for Rural Affairs rural research and analysis program, says that debate and rhetoric around health care reform created a lot of misinformation and a whole lot of unnecessary worry.
"If you have a small business with 50 or fewer employees - and that's almost all rural businesses - there is no mandate. You're not required to offer and provide health care insurance for your employees."
Rural roads: Two lanes and treacherous
Wed, 05/19/2010 - 14:09 — Casey FrancisStarTribune.com | By RICHARD MERYHEW | May 18, 2010
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Jake Rajewsky, Associated PresThis was the scene of the April crash on County Road 20 near Altura, Minn., where three teenage girls were killed and a fourth was injured. The three who died were not wearing seat belts; the survivor said she was wearing a lap belt. All four were thrown from the truck. |
The sky was clear and the spring afternoon was filled with promise as four girls from Lewiston-Altura High School piled into a pickup and headed off to start their weekend. A half-hour later, Shauna Ruhoff, 16, Morgan Zeller, 13 and Katie Hornberg, 14, were dead and Cydney Maker, 12, was clinging to life after the truck veered off a two-lane county road in southeastern Minnesota and flipped in a grassy ditch. Three of the girls were not wearing seat belts; the survivor said she was wearing a lap belt. All four were thrown from the truck.
"It shouldn't have happened," said Winona County Sheriff Dave Brand, who was called to the horrific scene that April afternoon. "It was a flat road. It was dry. Everything was visible."
It may be quieter and less congested on the roads of rural America, but don't be deceived: They can be deadly.
While the seven-county Twin Cities metro area has more than half of the state's population, roughly two out of three traffic deaths statewide -- and nationwide -- occur in rural areas.
Verizon to fulfill 4G promise to rural Americans?
Wed, 05/19/2010 - 13:57 — Casey FrancisCNET | By Marguerite Reardon | May 13, 2010
Verizon Wireless could make good on its promise to get 4G wireless broadband to rural America.
The nation's largest wireless provider is in talks with rural wireless operators to expand its 4G network to consumers in hard to reach areas of the country, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Verizon is building its next-generation wireless network using $4.7 billion worth of spectrum it acquired in the Federal Communication Commission's 700MHz auction in 2008. Using a technology called Long Term Evolution, or LTE, the carrier hopes to be in 25 to 30 markets by the end of this year.
Smog in a Rural Valley? Mystery Is Solved
Wed, 05/19/2010 - 13:20 — Casey FrancisThe New York Times | By SINDYA N. BHANOO | April 26, 2010
The smog in California’s San Joaquin Valley has puzzled scientists for years. Even though the region is largely rural and agricultural, its smog levels exceed those of densely populated cities like Los Angeles.
Some have speculated that animal waste or pesticides are the cause: both emit ozone, a primary ingredient in smog. But a recent study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology suggests that the primary culprit is actually cattle feed.
Researchers found that animal feed is the largest emitter of ozone in the valley, at 25 tons per day, followed by motor vehicles at 14 tons.
USDA Marks 75 Years of Commitment to Rural Electrification
Tue, 05/11/2010 - 13:42 — Casey FrancisUSDA News Release | May 11, 2010
RUS Focuses Future on Renewable Energy and Broadband
WASHINGTON, May 11, 2010 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack highlighted today the marking of the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). On May 11, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order to create the REA to bring power to rural areas. REA is hailed as having the greatest impact on rural America, credited with transforming a life of challenges into one of productivity and prosperity. Today, REA's successor, the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), a mission area of USDA Rural Development, finances electric, telecommunications including broadband, and water and waste systems across rural America.
"With the help of REA, electric cooperatives changed the way rural America works and lives," said Vilsack. "Today's rural electric cooperatives are innovative leaders, delivering smarter infrastructure to deploy broadband and develop renewable energy. The REA, and its successor, the Rural Utilities Service, created sustainable jobs and drove economic development across the countryside. That impact continues today."
"The Rural Electrification Program was one of the greatest successes in government technology programs of all time, and the electrification of rural America is considered one of the biggest engineering triumphs of the last hundred years," said Agriculture Undersecretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager.
Students solve town's EMS shortage
Tue, 05/11/2010 - 00:46 — Casey FrancisKTIV.com | By Zach Tecklenburg | May 10, 2010
AKRON, Iowa (KTIV) -- In small towns, services like emergency response are often limited. That's why it's important for volunteers to step up and take on duties in the fire department, or as EMTs.
Rounding up people to respond is a challenge in rural towns, but in Akron, Iowa, they're looking to teenagers to be first on the scene. Monday night, they received their EMS certification.
"We have a problem with volunteerism in the community and this is a way to maybe get some more volunteers," says program instructor John Jorgensen.
Monday night, six students from Akron-Westfield High School received their certificates for completing the EMS program through WIT.
Study finds Midwest could profit by growing fruit, vegetables to meet demand for local food
Mon, 05/10/2010 - 09:14 — Casey FrancisLos Angeles Times | By MICHAEL J. CRUMB, Associated Press Writer | May 7, 2010
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Midwest is known more for growing corn than cauliflower, but if its farmers raised the fruit and vegetables eaten in the Heartland, they could create thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in income, according to a recent study.
The study from Iowa State University looked at what would happen if farmers in six Midwestern states — Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin — raised 28 crops in quantities large enough to meet local demand. It found that if an ample supply of produce could be grown regionally, it would spur $882 million in sales, more than 9,300 jobs and about $395 million in labor income.
In Maine, A Rural Coalition That Works
Mon, 05/10/2010 - 08:59 — Casey FrancisMaine rural legislators from the inland had never worked with Maine rural legislators from the coast. Until they did.
DailyYonder.com | By Rep. Nancy Smith and Rep. Leila J Percy | May 5, 2010
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In Penobscot Bay off the coast of Mount Desert Island. Photo was taken from a ferry ride to Little Cranberry Island. | Photo by Nancy Smith via DailyYonder.com |
In the Maine legislature we know that our marine coastal areas are indeed part of our rural heritage and our current economy. We understand that fishermen, clammers, lobstermen, mussel farmers, and those who run businesses dependent on ocean-based enterprises share many of the challenges faced by our farm and forestry centered family businesses.
We didn’t start off this way. For some time, land-locked Maine legislators couldn’t see the connection between rural communities and the waterfront.
Minnesota's Farm to School Program Brings Local Produce to Local Kids
Thu, 05/06/2010 - 10:03 — Web EditorBy Wendy Johnson | Pine Journal | May 6, 2010
When Brent Campbell, a chemical-free market gardener from Iron River, Wis., supplied the 8,000 students of the Superior School District with fresh apples, students enthusiastically welcomed the fresh produce.
But after he and his wife spent six hours each washing, cutting, seeding and packaging their home-grown winter squash for those same students, at first the youngsters weren’t sure just what to make of it.
“The first time we served it, the little kids wondered what it was, so there was a fair amount of waste,” admitted Superior Food Service Director Jeanne Hopkins. “The second time around, however, a lot less went to waste. What it really amounts to is trying to change the students’ thinking patterns about what’s on their plates,” she concluded.
Campbell and Hopkins were among some 100 area residents gathered at the Cloquet Forestry Center last Thursday with one common goal in mind – to bring more local foods to community cafeterias. The Farm to School Program (more generically referred to as “School to Cafeteria”) is a recent initiative of the University of Minnesota Extension Service, which sponsored the day-long conference in consort with various sustainable farming initiatives and agricultural organizations.
“Our goal,” said Stephanie Heim, Farm to School coordinator, “is to bring food producers together with buyers and food service workers in order to supply cafeterias with fresh, local produce in place of the institutional, processed foods that many of them currently serve.”
Katheen Merrigan, Praised for 'Know Your Farmer' Program, Named One TIME's 100
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 09:33 — Web EditorTIME Magazine's TIME 100, a feature that highlight 100 people the magazine sees as changing our world, includes a profile of USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan.
Here is what Dan Barber, a food celebrity in his own right, writes about Merrigan:
Meeting Kathleen Merrigan for the first time can be confusing. You think you know her: Massachusetts native, child of the '70s, professor's daughter. You think: flower power, foodie, radical. She wants a community garden in every neighborhood, doesn't she? She does. Supports farmers' markets and local food? Check. She practically wrote the book on organic. (Actually, she did. See the 1990 Organic Foods Production Act.)
And though her charge as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is to represent all factions — whatever decision she's making, as one Washington insider told me, she "walks between raindrops" — you think, She's one of us.
Then you learn that she supports conventional farmers, refuses to vilify biotech and relishes above all else a good steak. "I displease pleasingly," she'll say, and you respect her all the more.
If you've ever wondered who in government shoulders the complexities of moving an agenda forward in a fractured time and pushes on without getting soaked, here is your answer.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1984685_19847...
Rural Hall history reflected in displays
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 00:32 — Casey FrancisWinston-Salem Journal | By Melissa Hall | April 25, 2010
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Peggy Toler, a member of the historical society’s board of directors, gathered many of the items donated by local residents for display in the museum. | Photo by Jennifer Rotenizer |
Town leaders and members of the Rural Hall Historical Society showed off the museum yesterday at its grand opening. It is in the former town hall on Bethania Street.
Mayor Larry Williams said that for many years he had wanted the town to have a museum and supporting historical group, which was formed about three years ago.
"We're excited about it from the town's perspective," Williams said. "It was the logical step."
Society members pushed for the museum because they want people to know about their town and how it has gotten where it is today.
Bank building lives on in Buxton, ND
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 16:02 — Casey FrancisPrairie Business Magazine | By Amanda Hvidsten | April 5, 2010
Bullet holes remain in one of the building’s doorways from a still unsolved 1933 bank robbery that resulted in the death of one of the bank’s cashiers.
The small Buxton Bank building in Buxton, ND, has been vacant for decades. But new life is being breathed into the structure. An effort is under way to restore the circa 1893 building to its former glory.
Bobbi Hepper Olson, the owner of Hepper Olson Architects, moved to Buxton after marrying a local fourth-generation farmer and drove past the old building for seven years before deciding something needed to be done to the structure.
Between neglect and the effects of the elements since it closed in 1977, the building had fallen into disrepair. Its floors, ceiling and everything in between needed help.
Hepper Olson’s background as an architect and her interest in the building made her the perfect person for the job. Her passion for the project also helped sustain the effort.
Growing Number of Small Farms Living Off the Land
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 15:56 — Casey Francis |
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Wayne and Jo Ann Wilson, repot tomatoes on their family farm in north Knox County. They are starting their 8th year with farming as their sole income. | Photo by Michael Patrick |
KnoxvilleBiz.com | By Larisa Brass | April 19, 2010
Lending new meaning to the term 'seed companies,' a new generation of start-ups is putting down roots in East Tennessee.
Micro-farming has found a niche here as agricultural entrepreneurs without the dollars to invest in larger, wholesale-type operations grow fresh produce for an increasing number of retail customers seeking natural and organically-grown local fruits and vegetables, eggs, flowers and other farm products.
In spite of a bad economy and poor growing weather — Tennessee producers were staggering last year from unseasonably wet conditions and the blights that followed — more small farmers are coming on the scene, and more of them derive their primary income from a few acres cultivated six to eight months of the year.
It's a new trend for this area, which has for a number of years hosted farmers markets, primarily populated by producers selling off extra veggies or engaging in a summer-only venture to supplement their primary income.
Rebuilding a Town Hub From a Store’s Ashes
Sun, 04/25/2010 - 12:44 — Casey FrancisThe New York Times | By Katie Zezima | April 24, 2010
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Matthew Cavanaugh for The New York Times“It’s almost like a death in this town,” Lorelei Smead said of the Putney General Store, destroyed by arson in November. |
PUTNEY, Vt. — When residents saw flames shooting out of the Putney General Store in November, they were filled with an all-too familiar sense of dread.
Stunned residents watched the store, which had been rebuilt after being severely damaged in an electrical fire in May 2008 but had not yet reopened, burn in a fireball that could be seen for miles. Then the improbable got even worse: the fire was declared arson.
“It was definitely an emotional kick to the gut,” said one resident, Lyssa Papazian. And the town was determined to hit back.
For residents of this bucolic town of 2,600 in southern Vermont, the general store was more than just a place to grab a cup of coffee or pick up a loaf of bread on the way home. For more than 200 years it had literally and figuratively been the town center, where people learned when babies were born and debated town issues while perusing the shelves or buying a hammer. Out-of-towners on their way to ski or see foliage would stop for sandwiches and penny candy and pose for photographs in front of the red wooden building.
House Set to Extend Rural Home Loan Guarantee Program
Sun, 04/25/2010 - 10:18 — Casey FrancisMortgage News Daily | By Jane Swanson | April 23, 2010
The continued availability of government guaranteed mortgages for rural homebuyers was virtually assured yesterday when the House Financial Services Committee voted to approve H.R. 5017. The unanimous vote will send the Rural Housing Preservation and Stabilization Act of 2010 to the full House of Representatives where sources said it was fast tracked for a vote as early as next week.
If passed, the bill will correct the Section 502 Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program to make it self-funding. Section 502 assists homebuyers living in rural areas to obtain affordable mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). These loan guarantees have become enormously popular during the financial crisis and consumer demand has tripled the annual number of loans that are typically issued each year. The program is set to exhaust its available funds within days. Under the new legislation, lenders will pay up to a 4 percent premium for the guarantee at the time the loan is initiated which will enable the financing of the program to move from a combination of government funding and industry fees to a self-sustaining initiative. The bill authorizes the department to guarantee up to $30 billion in loans in FY 2010.
With bill's passage and projects in works, wind power gains steam
Sun, 04/25/2010 - 10:14 — Casey FrancisThe Grand Island Independent | By Mark Coddington | April 24, 2010
Nebraska's wind power advocates, once few but vocal, are now part of a statewide push that's riding a wave of legislative victories and gaining momentum with every passing month. If you would have told Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen this five years ago, you might have been laughed out of the building.
"I'd have just looked at you and said, 'You've got to be kidding,'" Hansen said.
The last couple of years have been a flurry of activity for Nebraska's development of wind energy, and few stretches have been busier than the last month or so.
Earlier this month, the state Legislature passed LB1048, a bill several senators referred to as a "landmark" in the state's pursuit of wind development. State Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton, one of the Legislature's staunchest wind-power advocates, called it "the granddaddy of them all."
The Nebraska Public Power District issued its third annual request for proposals, starting a process that should culminate in at least one wind farm being added to the state's portfolio, if not more.
Against the grain: Keith Fritz creates divine furniture in rural Indiana
Sun, 04/25/2010 - 09:58 — Casey FrancisThe Washington Post | By Annie Groer | April 25, 2010
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Even with tenants generating $48,000 a year in rent, Fritz has posted either meager profits or moderate losses in recent years, with the rising cost of labor and materials and the downturn in the market. He believes he can ride out the recession and ultimately earn a 5 percent profit without expanding beyond his six showrooms. "I don't want to be larger than 10 employees and five outside contractors, and maybe a couple million dollars a year in sales. If it gets larger than that, then I cannot control quality." | Photo by Bill Luster |
On a raw and dreary February morning, former Washingtonian Keith Fritz wrestled a heavily padded tabletop and base into the tony Washington Design Center, where clients can pay as much for a chandelier as they would for a low-end BMW.
The table wasn't just another piece of fine furniture. With its round 64-inch-wide top and three curved legs on silver paw-foot casters, it represented more than 125 painstaking hours of work: sawing, sanding, gluing, planing, scraping, filling, staining, sealing, polishing, waxing and buffing. It symbolized Fritz's recession-tossed dream of proving that a tiny Indiana town with one traffic light could produce swoon-inducing furniture for designers from Dallas to New York and, in the process, help nudge a corner of the American heartland toward economic health and artistic fellowship.
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On that Monday not far from the U.S. Capitol, Fritz, 33, was wearing jeans, sneakers and a Brooks Brothers shirt -- one of many high-quality hand-me-downs from well-dressed designer pals familiar with his frugality and indifference to fashion. Sitting on the floor of the elegant Michael-Cleary home furnishings showroom, shoulders hunched up around his ears, he began attaching the tabletop to its base. After several minutes, he wriggled out and unfolded his 6-foot frame to inspect the surface, which was bathed in the bright glow of the chandeliers, sconces and lamps of the showroom's lighting gallery. Fritz, who has blue eyes and a monkish fringe of hair, peered down at 16 near-identical pie-matched slices of American "cathedral arch" walnut veneer, bordered in a thin circle of ebony. He smiled broadly.
When two local interior designers had told him they needed a table to anchor their dining room in the 2010 D.C. Design House, Fritz built this one for them on spec. It would stay at Michael-Cleary, Fritz's Washington showroom, which is open only to the design trade, until late last month, when it would be moved to a 1905 Georgian-style red brick mansion in Chevy Chase. From April 10 through May 9, it would be seen by thousands of home decor devotees who would come to ogle the efforts of 21 designers who had worked their magic on 20 rooms and newly landscaped gardens.
Although Keith Fritz Fine Furniture samples are also in showrooms in New York, Chicago, Boston, Dallas and Atlanta, Fritz's deepest roots outside Indiana are in Washington. It is here that he met his first decorators, architects and designers; snagged his first important clients; and came to believe he could, indeed, earn a living making furniture. It was here, too, that he learned that real estate could subsidize art.
Poll finds overwhelming support for wind power in Nebraska
Thu, 04/22/2010 - 08:52 — Casey FrancisLincoln Journal Star | By Staff | April 20, 2010
A strong majority of Nebraska voters -- 79 percent -- favors requiring electric utilities to use renewable energy sources for at least 20 percent of the power they generate.
That was a key finding of a new poll released Tuesday by the Center for Rural Affairs, American Wind Energy Association, and Wind Coalition and Energy Foundation, all proponents of a strong, federal renewable electricity standard.
"We are most encouraged by the fact that the strong support for wind energy knows no geographic, political or demographic bounds. From Falls City to Scottsbluff, from Hartington to Imperial, rural and urban, Republican and Democrat, there is overwhelming support for wind energy and more than 3-to-1 support for a 20 percent renewable electricity standard," said John Crabtree of the Center for Rural Affairs, in a prepared statement.
Rural ozone can be fed by feed (as in silage)
Thu, 04/22/2010 - 08:43 — Casey FrancisScienceNews.org | By Janet Raloff | April 21, 2010
Livestock operations take a lot of flak for polluting. Manure lagoons not only irritate neighbors’ noses but also leak nitrogen — sometimes fostering dead zones up to 1,000 miles downstream. And ruminants can release copious amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas. Researchers are now linking ozone to livestock as well. But this time the pollution source is not what comes out the back end of an animal but what’s destined to go in the front.
State air-quality managers have been puzzling over why some rural areas suffer high ozone pollution. It’s been a real conundrum in California’s San Joaquin Valley, home to three of the nation’s six most ozone-ravaged counties.
In big cities, combustion products spewed out of tailpipes and smokestacks play a big role in cooking up ozone. But there’s a paucity of these in rural America.
