With diesel costing $4 per gallon, many rural fire departments are facing their own budgetary emergencies. The Northwest Arkansas Times reported that Round Mountain's Fire Department has already spent $900 on fuel this year, as compared with $500 it had spent on fuel by early May 2007. Last year, fire dues went up from $40 to $60, but more increases may be on the way.
In Arkansas, "Most rural departments can count on county money and Act 833, a law set up in 1991 promising state money to purchase equipment and trucks, to set up their budget." The Nob Hill fire chief said his department receives "around $ 36,000 a year from the county and an additional $10,000 to $12,000 from Act 833."
The Crescent News reported on the problem in the Buckeye State. For the fire department in Defiance, Ohio, "the budget for fuel has increased by more than $4,000 in the past three years." U.S. Rep. John Boehner, of West Chester, Ohio, has been speaking out about high fuel costs and their penalty on rural Americans. He noted that, "In Texas, volunteer fire departments are reducing their equipment budgets to be able to afford gas."
What kind of mileage does a fire truck get anyway? According to reporter Jenny Derringer, "there's no point in even trying to figure (it) out ... Upon arrival at a fire scene, a truck may be parked and running for several hours while firefighters tackle the emergency at hand." Water pumps and sprayers also consume fuel.
For the third straight year, a study of Hispanic representation in Washington state's politics finds Latinos are underrepresented. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports, "In towns such as Toppenish, Wapato and Walla Walla, Latinos have considerably less influence in local politics and policy-making although in some places Latinos outnumber whites. The study, "The State of the State for Washington Latinos," was carried out by researchers at Whitman University.
Latinos now account for 10% of the state's population, but only 2% of Washington's state legislators are Hispanic.
Latino Washingtonians are especially concentrated in the central part of the state, an agricultural region. Looking at local and countywide leadership there, the research team found "a 'pressing need' for changes in the way school boards are elected in Toppenish and Wapato, where at-large voting results in under-representation of Latinos." Students in Pasco, Washington, have challenged the lack of bilingual ballots as a violation of the Voting Rights Act.
Presidents of rural community colleges typically must contend with geographic isolation, a static local economy, and meager funding. A researcher says it's time to "ruralize" the job description and attract those people most likely to succeed.
Lisa Pruitt over at the always-interesting Legal Ruralism discusses the effects of the Supreme Court's decision this week that the state of Indiana can require people to show government-issued photo IDs before being allowed to vote. The Court acknowledged that there should be some appeal with such paperwork, and the justices approved a plan that would have citizens cast a provision ballot at the county clerk's office within 10 days of the election.
"While such a journey might seem 'no big deal' to city dwellers," Pruitt writes, "it will impose a hardship on many rural voters." During oral arguments, Chief Justice John Roberts, a Hoosier, said this made sense because "county seats aren't very far for people in Indiana." Fine, because Indiana has 92 counties. Kentucky has 120. Short trips.
But what about California, a huge state divided into just 58 counties? "Makes one wonder what distance would be considered 'excessive' in the eyes of our urban-dwelling Supreme Court Justices," Pruitt writes.
"Danville (above) is one of a handful of American communities where men and women are living shorter lives," begins a forthright editorial published in the Register Bee, the Virginia town's daily newspaper. "By almost every statistical measure, Danville has problems."
Danville has "old problems," says the editorial. Population has been stagnate for 50 years. People are living shorter lives because of AIDS and homicides and because too many people are without medical insurance. See this Yonder story on rural longevity.
"The best long-term solution is raising education levels and worker skills," the editorial says, but the underlying problem is the "long slumber that Danville has only recently started to awaken from. If we understand how we wound up with these problems, it's easier to get started on the solutions."
Jerry Guenther at the Norfolk (Nebraska) Daily News reminds us why people enjoy living in rural communities with his story, "Volunteers Help Local Red Cross Chapter Earn Honor." Guenther tells us that the local Red Cross in the northeast part of the state continues to lead the region in the way it carries out its work.
"Ask just about anyone living in Northeast Nebraska what they enjoy about living here and the willingness of people to help each other would rate high," Guenther writes. The local chapter only has two employees, but it's been so successful that the national Red Cross organization has been asking those in Norfolk for their secret sauce.
"What I shared with them is that in Northeast Nebraska, neighbor helps neighbor," said executive director Lori Carollo. (See photo above of fire in January.) "If there's a fire, the whole block is out (helping). It's neighbor helping neighbor, providing food and organizing a benefit."
A two and a half year study of "industrial farm animal production" by a special commission has concluded that while "industrial farm animal production has benefits, it brings with it growing concerns for public health, the environment, animal welfare, and impacts on rural communities." The report, sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public, finds that the costs of large scale animal production are "human illnesses caused by drug resistant bacterial associated with the rampant use of antibiotics on feedlots and the degradation of land, water and air quality caused by animal waste too intensely concentrated to be neutralized by natural processes," according to the Washington Post.
The commission concluded: "Research consistently shows that the social and economic well-being of rural communities benefits from large numbers of farmers rather than fewer farms that produce increased volumes. In rural communities where fewer, larger farms have replaced smaller, locally owned farms, residents have experienced lower family income, higher poverty rates, lower retail sales, reduced housing quality, and persistent low wages for farm workers."