Imagine if the Village of Dorchester and City of Friend teamed up to implement a program to retain their young people and attract young families to the area. Or if Dorchester and Wilber worked together to devise an incentive program to bring businesses to their Main Streets. Or if our village leaders worked with the Milford and Crete city councils to create a new program to groom the next generation of area leaders.All of the above ideas could be eligible for state funding through the Building Entrepreneurial Communities Act (BECA). Under the BECA program, grants are aimed to help rural areas build and sustain programs that generate and retain income in communities. Eligible applicants are those with at least two local units of government collaborating on a project with a maximum two-year completion deadline.
Eligible projects must address one or more of the following activities:
- provide education and technical help that energizes small business development and entrepreneurship;
- provide technical assistance that facilitates small business transfer;
- build community business capacity and leadership programs;
- generate opportunities that attract and retain youth and/or families;
- provide education about philanthropy and transfer of inter-generational wealth;
- provide education about building community endowments to support all activities;
- establish community initiatives that attract new residents;
- provide marketing assistance (for Web sites, printed or electronic materials, etc.) to recruit new residents from outside the state.
Applications must be received at either the Nebraska Department of Economic Development in Lincoln, or the Nebraska Rural Development Commission office in North Platte by Noon, May 1. Complete guidelines and the application form can be found at: http://www.neded.org/content/view/374/555/.
For more information, call Linda Fettig at (308) 380-4966 or linda.fettig@nebraska.gov.
As the economy continues to deteriorate, there will be a natural progression back to our smaller communities. Farm families will have their metropolitan middle aged children start coming back home, just to have some income. The big farms will get smaller, as these families spread the ability to create income, and as a result, our smaller communites will begin to thrive again.
ReplyDeleteOur current President, God help him, is making the same mistakes as FDR. And our ecomony will continue to deteriorate. As jobs disappear in the large cities, the old deversified farming techniques will by necessity come back.
Those that take the initiative now, to become future leaders, and open small community based businesses will not get rich, but they will be able to survive the tuff times ahead.
The sad fact of being a historian, is that I see history repeating itself. Instead of cutting taxes and radically cutting government spending like in the 1920 depression, which only lasted a couple years, and ended in a boom, we are spending money to buy our way out, and this, like in the Great Depression will fail. We will likely survive the deflation of property and commodities better than the coasts, but it will hurt. Instead of moving to California, the progression of movement will be back to the plains.
Our current leaders are going back to the failed ideas of John Keynes, who admitted that Ludwig Mises and Frederick Hayek were correct. Government must cut taxes, and CUT SPENDING to grow the economy. We also have to allow for a natural boom and bust cycle to weed out the bad banks and businesses, so that the economy can grow naturally.
Unfortunately, the Federal government is going to get bigger and more powerfull, and this will encroach on our God given rights. I don't know about most of the readers of this blog, but I can tell you one thing, I look up to the Founding Fathers, and their idea of true liberty coming from God Almighty. They felt, and I beleive rightly so, that good governments protect our God given rights, and bad governments take them away. If you look at the stimulus package, and the rules tied to the money, it is a large encroachment on our 9th and 10th Amendment rights. I tremble at the thought that there is a Rightous God who reigns over the universe. Our Founders are at the Throne right now, asking for intervention.
Hang on, think positive, and do a lot of praying. We are in for a hard ride, especially for we baby boomers. It is going to be a rude awakening!
JR Wolfe
York
PS You might want to talk to your grand parents and get some tips on how to survive, in a cash poor, agraian society agian! Bet this gets the bloggers all a going!!
Buy gold, Mr. Wolfe. Perhaps a little ammo, too. Obama makes FDR look like Jefferson or Washington.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting insight hopefully things will improve soon and get things rolling again.
ReplyDeleteFirst let me say I'm honored to make your latest online poll. Second, I hope our village board will see this post and get together with a neighboring community to apply for the state grant. Lots of good could come from this if the right plan is put forth.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing, this economy makes for a great time to teach kids more responsibility. Teens must start pitching in around home more and earning their own way if they want to participate in programs. When I was a kid growing up, we had fundraisers all the time. "Slave auctions" and door to door sales were commonplace. I would like to see sports teams and student organizations doing this type of activity again instead of my property taxes going up or Uncle Sam taking more of my income.
To Bob
ReplyDeleteDid you have kids go through school.
Someone paid taxes for them.
ITs your turn now.
My kids are currently in school and considering how much I pay in property taxes, I'm willing to bet I foot the bill for both of my kids and yours too. Maybe we should charge everyone equally based on how many kids they send through the system.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm guessing you live in town and your taxes are about 10% of what I pay. So I accept your apologies and your thank you's.
Your know I heard alot of things about what bob says, I think that you are a simple minded person. Who cares who makes what, it for kids, and kids are our future. Quite arguing about it. We all have kids, I would pay anything for a childs future, and not complain about it. Write something that will make a differencein a childs life, not how much you pay in taxes. Isn't every child worth it.
ReplyDeletehey bob,
ReplyDeletegive me a second while i get some kleenex so you can wipe away the tears.
YOu choose to live where you want. YOu make money off the ground you live on.
ohh.......and start driving your kids to school so i dont have to supply the bus to pick them up so that they can ride when it is convient.
Sounds like you should be running for school board next election so you can get some changes made.
I always say, if you arent part of solution, you are part of the problem.
To those who disliked the New Deal: Please return your Social Security and crop subsidy checks immediately.
ReplyDeleteIf the feds quit taking 30% of my income and another 6.2% from my payroll, and another 6.2% from my employer, I will gladly return my s.s. check. I hope you're not part of the 50% of Americans who don't pay in any income tax, because if you are I just wasted my time responding.
ReplyDelete