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Show Community Grovth Needs to Stay in Local Hands m Washington, Si-pl. 21-Say 21-Say you live in a small town or out in the country, you want to create new jobs so that your young people, if lin y want to, can slay there; or you want your twon to serve better the needs of your family. Is assistance available? And if so, do you have the final say in how that assistance is managed? manag-ed? The answer to both of these questions is "Yes," according to Dr. James Uostic, acting assistant secretary of agriculture agricul-ture for rural development. Kural development assistance programs are processed through the local or county office of the Tixtension Service, farmers Home Administration (1'mllA), or other U.S. Department Depart-ment of Agriculture (USDA) agencies. And neighborly county USDA workers have a long and enviable record of helping local people help themselves, he says. Dr. Bostic puts it this way: "It rural and small toyvn community growth goals and patterns were set in Washington, Washingt-on, it would wrongly imply that federal wisdom and capability about community development exceed that of local people. I doubt if any of our workers are foolish enough to make that assumption." Suppose you need advice on how to bring new manufacturing, manufactur-ing, office, or laboratory jobs to your area. Perhaps your town needs added water or sewer facilities, a medical center, or industrial park, or housing assistance. How do you proceed? Whom do you see? Dr. Itostie suggests that you see you local fxtension Service Ser-vice agent, Farmers Home Administration county supervisor, super-visor, or other USDA employee. employ-ee. Increasingly, USDA and the stale land grant universities universi-ties are training their county representatives to handle community com-munity growth and development develop-ment problems. And if they are not able to cope with a specific situation, they will put you in touch with a specialist who is. Last year FmHA made over 3,000 community facility loans, up from less than 1000 such loans made in 1969. Fmlla housing loans to low and moderate income families last year exceeded the 100,000 mark, which is roughly double the number of such loans made in l9. The Extension Service, meanwhile, has over 700 full-time, rural development specialists assisting county agents and local people meet neighborhood growth problems. prob-lems. That's one specialist for ever four counties. One of their duties is to help local communities broaden their economic bases and their quality-of-life characteristics. Other USDA agencies, such as the Soil Conservation Service, the Forest Service and m the Agricultural Stabilization anil Conservation Service, are stalled with people able to help solve specialized developmental develop-mental problems. "USDA programs," Dr. Uostic points our, "are design ed to provide you with facts, know-how, loans, grants, and organizational assistance. And our county employees know about loans and grants, as well as other assistance programs, that are available from other departments and agencies of the federal establishment. "Decisions relating to every aspect of community growth are best made by local people. They know what is going on. It is their community destiny that is being shaped. They will decide if they want to grow or not to grow and how to achieve it. They will decide the kind of jobs they want to creat and how the land will be used. "The American dream has lead to a good life for our people primarily because it was based on self-determination. And community self-determination self-determination is basic to that process." |
