Driving around Alabama, one is sure to pass through a small, rural town where the once-thriving downtown stores have boarded-up windows and grass growing up through the sidewalks. With 30 percent of the state’s population living in rural areas, these dying towns exist, but not for long if the Alabama Rural Development office has anything to do with it.
“There is no reason for people not to enjoy the same qualities of life (as people in urban areas) if they live in a rural area,” said Steve Pelham, state director for the Alabama Rural Development office, which is part of the United States Department of Agriculture.
“We have available resources and have invested a lot of money in Alabama, but local leadership still has to apply for the money,” Pelham said, noting his agency invested $578 million in rural development program funds last year.
Since 2001, $2 billion has been invested in Alabama and $77 billion has been invested nationwide, he said. “This money has either helped create or retain jobs in rural America.” And there are lots of success stories coming out of Alabama, he added.
For instance, $18.4 million was awarded to Randolph and Cleburne counties Aug. 23 for an upgraded and expanded water system.
“This will have an impact on these two counties being able to manage their resources,” he said, noting they are poised for growth in the coming years due to their location being halfway between Birmingham and Atlanta.
Rewardingly rural
Crenshaw County is another success story, he said. The leaders in that county have generated 1,500 new jobs in the past few years, and a new $5 million hospital was built two years ago, Pelham explained.
These types of stories can happen everywhere with the right kind of leadership and motivation from the citizens, he said.
“I can’t just give (the money) to the people,” Pelham noted. “They have to complete an application and compete for it, but if they never apply, then they will never get any money.”
The U.S. House version of the 2007 Farm Bill (see page 5) puts more money into rural areas including broadband development, which Pelham said is the most popular “and most interesting” aspect of rural development currently in Alabama. Renewable energy projects and health care are also top on the list.
The House-version of the Farm Bill creates a new grant program for rural health-care facilities and small businesses and authorizes $30 million in mandatory spending for regional development programs.
“We have benefited from the 2002 Farm Bill,” Pelham said, noting he has not thoroughly studied the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill. “[The 2002 version had] a lot of emphasis on programs and resources for rural America that are not agriculturally related. … Not as many people are involved with agriculture today, so we have to provide other job opportunities.
“I hope Congress will see fit to fund us at a level that we can do the kind of things we have been doing these past years,” he noted.
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