High gas prices threaten to shut down rural towns

Tag : Hauling Machine

Allen's grocery store went out of business last August, forcingpeople to shop in South Sioux City or 21 miles away in Wayne.Doctors, dentists and other essentials also require a road trip.The nearest movie theater is in Wayne.

"You have to leave town for about everything," says JerrySchroeder, an insurance agent who has lived in Allen for all of his57 years. He recalls when the farming town, founded in 1891 as arailroad stop, had four grocery stores, four gas stations, twobanks, a doctor, two farm equipment dealers and a mortuary.

Now Schroeder often parks his gas-guzzling Dodge pickup, which hecalls "the last truck I'm ever going to own," and uses his wifeDonna's Mercury Grand Marquis. It gets 25 miles per gallon. "We'reall going to have to change," he says.

There's still a school, restaurant, day care center and bank inAllen, but about three-fourths of the residents commute to jobs outof town. Security National Bank president Rob Bock and other localleaders say a gas station is key to the town's survival. Residentsformed a corporation and hope to open a gas station/conveniencestore later this year on the site of the old station.

"Even in a bedroom community, people need the basic core services,"Bock says. "We want to maintain school enrollment and propertyvalues."

Elizabeth Macrander, 24, has worked at the bank in Allen sinceNovember. For the first few months, she drove to work every dayfrom Sioux City, Iowa, filling up her Mercury Mountaineer (14-15mpg) every two days. "I didn't have a paycheck left," she says, soin May she bought a house in Allen.

Even with a house payment, she's saving money since cutting hercommute, Macrander says. She drives her 10-month-old daughter,Jordan, to day care 5 miles out of town daily and carefully plansother travel. On her next trip to Sioux City, she'll visit herparents and sister, buy groceries and gas and hit Wal-Mart forcleaning supplies. "You make the list, and you get everything doneat once," she says.

It's more difficult for Allen Kleinschmit to pare gas usage. Heruns the Pioneer Seed distribution center in Allen, tests soil andgives irrigation advice to area farmers. That adds up to 100,000 orso miles every year on his Chevy Silverado truck, which gets 7 or 8mpg if he's hauling equipment. He drives 25 miles to work fromColeridge.

Don Schmidt, superintendent of Allen Consolidated Schools, budgeted$37,500 for fuel in the 2008-09 school year, up from $25,000 thisyear. Higher gas prices make it more difficult to recruit teachersand coaches, he says, and field trips to the Omaha zoo 120 milesaway and other destinations are at risk.
The OPIS survey said Dixon County residents spend an average of$198.82 a month on gas, 6.44% of their monthly income.

Shelly Jones quit her job in Sioux City after moving to Allen withher husband, Jay, and their three kids because the commute was soexpensive. This summer, they're using their Big Country camper lessoften and stockpiling food and milk in the extra refrigerator intheir garage to reduce grocery runs.

High gas prices make Jones angry and worried about the future ofthe town she loves. "You're almost forcing the rural communities toshut down," she says.
Jobs scarce, money tight
Brett Denight, 34, bought a house in Sawyers Bar, Calif., a widespot on the mountain road with a few houses, a couple of years ago.
Like the Forks General Store a few miles away, he has no electricservice. He installed three solar panels on his roof, but a dieselgenerator runs his washing machine and the power tools he uses tobuild cabinets and other carpentry work. The generator consumes agallon of fuel every eight hours.

Gas has always been expensive around here, Denight says, but he'shad to alter his routines since it hit the $5 mark. When he drivesthe 54 miles to Yreka, he stocks up on food and other supplies."You're always asking people to pick things up for you if they'regoing to town," he says. He visits his girlfriend in Eureka, a124-mile drive one way, less often. When he buys gas, he also fillsup a 40-gallon tank that sits on the back of his truck.

This part of Northern California, near the Oregon border andbisected by the Klamath and Salmon rivers, is wild and beautiful,but it's too isolated to attract many tourists except for raftersand people searching for Big Foot.

Many of the small towns were once gold-mining camps, then centersof the timber industry. Both businesses are mostly gone now, andjobs are scarce. Siskiyou County's unemployment rate was 8.7% inMay, when the national rate was 5.5%. The OPIS study said countyresidents pay $183.11 a month for gas, or 7% of monthly familyincome.
People come from miles around to buy gas and groceries in HappyCamp, population 1,110. At Connor Cardlock, the only gas station,gas and diesel cost more than $5 a gallon. Except for the hoursbetween 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., customers must use credit cards to buygas. People who don't have credit cards arrive with friends who doand fork over cash to compensate them.

T.J. Day, 43, a maintenance worker for a local tribe, shakes hishead with disgust as he fills up. He figures it will cost him $40worth of gas to drive 70 miles to Yreka and 70 miles back. "Youcan't afford to go anywhere anymore," he says.

At Parry's Market, employee Dan McCarthy, 50, says the store pays2-3 cents more each week for almost every item it stocks because ofrising freight costs. "Where do you catch a break?" he asks.

'It's very frightening'
The situation looks even more dire to Karen Derry and NadineMcElyea. They work at Happy Camp's Family Resource Center, whichprovides emergency assistance, mental-health outreach and otherservices.

McElyea worries that senior citizens in remote areas could die ifthey neglect their medical needs because of the high cost ofgetting around. Some poor residents and senior citizens come to thecenter because they're running out of food, she says.

In the past few weeks, calls from people needing medical attentionand help paying utility bills have soared, says Derry, the center'sdirector. "I worry a lot, especially about the elders," she says."It's very frightening."

Jodi Henderson, who works for Happy Camp's volunteer ambulanceservice, is alarmed, too. Reimbursements from the state dropped 10%Tuesday, creating a gap in funds to offset emergency runs to Yreka,which cost at least $1,200 each. The service has two paidemployees, 13 volunteers and two ambulances. The one used mostoften has 225,000 miles on it and gets about 8 miles per gallon.
 
Forty-four miles south of Happy Camp at the senior center inOrleans, supervisor Babbie Peterson sees the concern in the eyes ofthe elderly who come for lunch every day. She frets that she'lllose the volunteers who cook and serve the meals and deliver themto the house-bound. She dreads the inevitable breakdowns of thecenter's furnace or refrigerators because service people drive twohours from Eureka to get here "and they charge a $500 travel fee."

Frank Woodman, 79, who came to the senior center for lunch with hismother-in-law Mary Silva, 93, calls gas prices "terrible."
"At our age, we have to go to the doctor quite often," he says."That's 38 miles each way, and you always think about how much it'scosting in gas. I know people who don't bother going, even whenthey know they need to."

Shirley Reynolds, 73, who drives 160 miles a month to pick up anddeliver supplies for a food bank, says she knows seniors who"haven't been in Eureka for six or seven months. They can't affordit." Reynolds drives a Chevy pickup that gets 15 mpg. "I parked myCadillac six months ago," she says.
Back at the Forks General Store, Hanley cringes when she's askedhow much higher gas prices might go. "I don't see any end, to behonest," she says. "I think this country is headed into adepression."