8C
Thursday, May 3, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Development
Continued from p. 16
state's lack of money to conduct a massive rural development campaign.
"The needs out there are incredible, and all are legitimate in one sense or other, but Kansas can't afford to rebuild every bridge in the state," said Mark Lapping, a former professor of engineering and now the dean of the faculty of planning at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
The state is having to be careful with its economic expenditures because financing in this area is so tight. Kansas, though regarded by other states as a model for its programs, ranked 40th in expenditures for economic development in 1988.
Nancy McCabe, director of the new Rural Assistance Center, which advises people and communities, also points to the lack of state money for emphasizing community initiative.
"There's not a lot of free dollars floating around out there," she said. "We can't tell a city what to do. A community has to decide what to do. But no matter what, there are ways we can help."
What remains to be seen is whether Kansas communities have the willingness and the ability to take the initiative to help themselves. But they may not have a choice. A bill being debated in the
Legislature would the future grants to towns or counties that had formed a strategic planning committee.
Two opinions
To a degree, the state already gives money to communities that are busy with economic development activities.
"We don't invest funds where nothing's happening," said Charles Warren, president of Kansas Inc.
Warren envisioned three futures for Kansas communities after analyzing the rural market forces of declining population and economic stagnation. The futures grow dimmer as towns grow smaller. Larger regional centers, towns with more than 10,000 people that serve smaller communities, should adapt and grow. Smaller regional centers, such as Hillsboro, should stabilize their populations by maintaining businesses. Smaller rural town that are not regional centers, such as Cherokee, may face gradual decline and possible extinction.
Warren's forecast is similar to the future that Lapping predicts for Kansas. But the men are polar opposites when it comes to dealing with the futures as public policy — Warren favors market forces and Lapping's idea has raised eyebrows and blood pressures across Kansas.
Lapping proposes a triage concept
for appropriating state funds to towns. Triage is based on battlefield medical decisions, where priority is given to the wounded with the best chance for survival, in this case, the smaller regional centers such as Hillsboro. Lightly wounded towns, such as the larger regional centers, and mortality wounded towns, such as the smaller, non-regional centers like Cherokee, would receive a lower priority for state funds.
priority Cherokee could suffer from this proposal, but it is in better shape than most towns its size because it is 10 miles from Pittsburgh, which has a population of 18,849.
The triage concept, Lapping said, should be made public policy so that towns would know exactly where they stood with the state. He said this distinction was important for current state policy, which tends to follow market forces.
"I not sure it’s efficient and not sure that it’s honest," Lapping said of natural, market-induced triage. "If the government is not going to invest in your community, you ought to go out and not out in the open, it not fair."
Warren dismisses Lapping's idea as politically unfeasible. He said that if it is impossible to accurately predict which towns may or may not survive.
Tale of two towns
Downtown Hillsboro stays busy serving shoppers. An industrial park keeps residents in town during the day
One town that has forged its sur-
Steve Buckner/KANSAN
Steve Wiltun/Hillsboro Star-Journa
During the day, downtown Cherokee is quiet. Most of Cherokee's residents work in nearby town
"It was a forward-thinking group of men," said Carol Wilee, director of the Hillsboro Development Corporation. Her husband, Harold, a local banker and mayor of Hillsboro since 1971, was one of the group's leaders.
Wibea said the group realized Hillsboro would be limited as a small town with only an agricultural-based economy. On the advice of the consultant, the town purchased 160 acres east of Hillsboro and developed it into an industrial park. The park is home to six companies that employ 134 people. The town also formed the for-profit Hillsboro Development Inc. to actively pursue businesses for the town.
"I find it more and more incredible that Hillsboro is doing what we're doing now." Wiele said. "If we can retain what we have, we'll be in great shape 10 years from now."
Houston communities such as Cherokee are furiously trying to catch up to Hillsboro's example. Cherokee, a former mining boon town, has used a basic state program to initiate its economic development work. The program, which is based on what citizens know about money, focuses on bringing citizens together to improve the living conditions in the town.
Cherokee also will complete improvements to its water system in August and is counting on the project to help the community. The town has spent $1.3 million updating its water treatment plant, putting in a line to nearby McCune and laying 57,000 feet of new pipe throughout Cherokee. McCune soon will take at least 600,000 gallons of Cherokee's water each month, and other nearby towns have inquired about water service.
In Cherokee's case, said Vernon Brisbin, the town's chief of police and organizer of the 3-month-old project, 20 people helped plant trees, build a new park, expand buildings and reinstate Cherokee's homecoming, the town's fall festival.
But the returns on the ambitious project appear as a trickle into Cherokee's coffers. The minimum monthly sales to McCune would gross only $1,380. And Cherokee owes $164,000 on a 20-year Community Development Block Grant for the water treatment plant work, along with $450,000 on a 40-year grant from the Farm and Home Administration and $231,000 on a loan for the town's water line.
"Cherokee exists basically on the money it receives for its water," he said. "When it's all put together, Cherokee is going to see some growth. We're looking at blacktop streets, new housing and more businesses coming to town."
Despite these figures, Brisbin said he was optimistic about Cherokee's survival chances.
Town leaders also hope to develop an industrial park, but Brisbin said that attracting businesses to Cherokee might take three to five years. Given the gravity of the state's situation and the magnetic pull of coal, it will be hard to reach Kansas, the lag time could prove critical for Cherokee.
In many ways, Cherokee serves as a microcosm of Kansas' problems. Down, but not out; hopeful with its water project, but having to wait a few years to enjoy the fruits of its crop; or still trying despite the late hour.
Rosemari Ascari, who with her husband operates a convenience store on Highway 160 in Cherokee, is symbolic of the dynamics that are played out in rural communities across Kansas. The Ascaries operate 160 specialty store in Cherokee for 30 of its 50 years before selling in 1988 after years of fighting shrinkage margins and fewer customers.
Despite their experiences, the Ascanios are planning a comeback in the grocery business with a wholesale outlet in Cherokee. But even a buoyant person like Rosemari Ascano has her doubts for the state of the state.
"You try to hope some things will improve," she said. "It's scary. Sometimes you sit and think about it and you get scared."
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