Rural Development opens new vistas for rural communities

Spectrum/Bill Allen

2004 was a year of achievement for USDA Rural Development in Alaska. We directly invested almost $150 million into the Alaska economy.

In most cases our funds were combined with dollars from our state, federal, local and private funding partners to multiply the impact of our funds on the economy.

Rural Development has three primary program areas: housing, business and utilities. With the exception of utilities, which are cyclical in nature, all of our program areas showed substantial increases in dollar volume in fiscal year 2004.

As successful as the just-completed year was, our goals are high and at Rural Development, we have a mandate to lead.

President Bush has challenged our agency to do even more in 2005.

We are working toward universal broadband access in rural Alaska, strengthening distance learning and telemedicine services and encouraging homeownership and entrepreneurship.

For example, over the past two years we have provided eight rural Alaska school districts with grants of $400,000 to $500,000 each to provide distance learning opportunities.

The equipment purchased with these grant funds connects rural classrooms and provides students with learning opportunities not only here in Alaska, but elsewhere in the world.

After learning that her rural Southeast Alaska district was successful in receiving a grant, one superintendent told me she plans to use our equipment to provide Spanish language instruction to her students, and to partner with a school in China to provide language and cultural instruction.

We are very proud of our housing outreach efforts. In 2004, 589 Alaska families directly benefited from Rural Development programs.

We made or guaranteed 342 housing loans, and most of those loans were to first-time homebuyers.

More than 20 percent of the loans were to members of minority groups. Fifty-six residences were rehabilitated with grants and low-interest loan funds. Another 191 families received assistance with their rent payments.

Our business programs also recorded a substantial increase. For the second year in a row, our guaranteed loan volume for businesses was the fourth highest of all of the states.

Rural Alaska is a changing place. It faces the challenge of high fuel costs - up to $5 per gallon for heating oil - and substantial transportation costs.

As director of Rural Development in Alaska, last month I traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with the Secretary of Agriculture, Rural Development Undersecretary Gilbert Gonzalez and other state directors from around the country to set goals for 2005.

The challenges are clear. Rural Alaska, especially Western Alaska, lags behind the nation in infrastructure.

It's difficult to attract venture capital to places where fire protection and insurance are hard to come by and long-range power costs are unknown. That's where Rural Development comes in.

Working with our partners, and with the strong support of our congressional delegation, we have provided millions of dollars for fire-protection services, clinics, electrical projects and public-safety buildings.

Over the past three years, we have provided almost $92 million in grants and more than $2 million in loans for Alaska water and sewer projects alone. Much of that funding is directly due to the efforts of Sen. Ted Stevens and his staff.

Access to medical care is a key quality-of-life issue for rural Alaska. That's why we've provided major funding support in recent years for clinics in Unalakleet, Angoon and Sunshine, and why this year we are joining with our partners to provide funding support for a new clinic in Sand Point.

We have also teamed up with the state of Alaska and regional emergency medical service councils to provide ambulances, gurneys and rescue equipment to literally hundreds of rural Alaska communities over the past four years.

Homeownership and entrepreneurship are at the heart of the president's call for an ownership society.

That's why we made a $5-million loan guarantee to a crane company in North Pole, and provided financial backing to expansion of a local grocery store chain in rural Alaska.

It's also why we helped nine Mat-Su families - all renters - achieve their dream of homeownership. We did it through the "Mutual Self Help Housing" program.

Those families spent a year working cooperatively to build their own homes at Settlers Bay, near Wasilla. Today they live in beautiful ranch-style homes and as they took occupancy they realized an estimated $60,000 per family in "sweat equity."

Low-interest loans to turn renters into homeowners, loans and grants to start new businesses and preserve existing businesses, a power plant in Nome, a water tank in Kotzebue, a day-care center in Sitka, a library in Haines - all of this and more is part of the Rural Development mission.

We don't just do it here, we do it everywhere.

Nationally, in 2004, USDA Rural Development provided more than $14 billion in new investment in rural utilities, housing and business development. More than $50 billion has been invested since the start of the Bush Administration, to foster growth. More than 800,000 rural jobs have been created or saved across the nation, thanks to our programs.

We appreciate the opportunity to serve the people of rural Alaska. We would welcome the opportunity to speak to anyone who wants to know more about our programs.

Check out our Web site at www.rurdev.usda.gov or call any of our Alaska offices. We have staff in Palmer, Fairbanks, Sitka, Bethel, Dillingham, Kenai and Nome.

At Rural Development, we are committed to the future of rural communities.

Bill Allen is state director for USDA Rural Development, and a member of the Mat-Su Borough Assembly.