There will be lots of articles in the coming weeks that try to tell us exactly what was in the stimulus package that just passed and what it all really means, but here’s the coverage from the Associated Press published today. Supposedly the 7 billion in grants for rural broadband are intended for small town telecommunications firms, and not the big dogs, so we’ll see. While we’re waiting, at least we can see which rural areas across the country have broadband or don’t, and how much.
Becky McCray of Small Business Survival suggests ways we can constructively use any slower time we might have when our sales are down.
In Strengthening Rural Communities A Critical Issue In Need of Action Amy Rochkes of the Journal Gazette/Times Courier in Illinois looks at needed areas of improvement for rural communities, from schools to healthcare, and infrastructure including broadband. As Ms. Rochkes correctly points out, it’s pretty difficult for our rural small businesses to adapt in the high-tech information age without broadband internet access. She also highlights how difficult it can be getting our problems solved because of the way they are administered:
According to the Congressional Research Service, 88 rural development programs are operated by 16 different federal agencies. This broad reach makes developing a cohesive rural development strategy difficult. USDA Rural Development manages more than half the rural development programs and is authorized through the Farm Bill.
Between politics and loss of funding, some of the organizations that advocate for rural America announced this week that they are cancelling events or closing their doors for good. REWRITE$: Main Street, Media and the Recovery a conference on rural economic development scheduled for March in Alabama at Jacksonville State University has been cancelled for lack of registrants. The Southern Rural Development Initiative (headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina) and its efforts to promote racial and economic justice in the rural South will shut down February 20th.
