Loss of REAP could hurt rural areas

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Ricky Lee, Hulbert Utilities superintendent, showed off one of the projects the REAP program did for the city. It provided new fronts to the buildings to update the old ones. Photo by Travina Coleman

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March 18, 2010

Funds that rural communities like Hulbert count on for supplementing operations could be cut by the Legislature.

By TRAVINA COLEMAN Press Staff Writer The Tahlequah Daily Press Thu Mar 18, 2010, 10:11 AM CDT

HULBERT — The sidewalks and storefronts of smaller communities occasionally get the makeovers they need to help improve their image.

Then there are improvements to city parks, and even the installation of storm shelters to protect the community’s citizens.

But who pays for all this work, especially in communities where the revenue stream is rather thin?

For a town with little industry or tourism to foot the bills, many rural communities look to government grants to float them along.

One state program – the Rural Economic Action Plan, or REAP – has funded several projects for rural town like Hulbert over the years.

Leona Welch, Hulbert town clerk, said the REAP program has done a lot for the community.

“We are getting our new storm shelters for this year,” Welch said. “But REAP has done a lot for water improvements, and other things.”

REAP was developed during the early 1990s, and the money is routed through the state Department of Commerce to 11 different councils of government. Communities seeking REAP funds go through an application process. So far, more than 7,000 projects have been funded across the state, according to www.rurdev.usda.gov.

Welch said the program helped put new “faces” on the building that houses city hall and the police department, as well as the building across the street. She said the program even paid for Hulbert’s city park and tornado sirens.

But Welch is concerned about what would happen if the Oklahoma lawmakers can’t find the funding for the program during these troubled economic times.

“We will not be able to do any kind of improvements,” she said. “I don’t know where the money would come from.”

Sen. Jim Wilson said the REAP program is in a kind of limbo at the moment.

“We don’t have the numbers yet,” he said. “Last year it was going to be cut completely, and we convinced the people in committee it was a poor political decision.”

Wilson said the Legislature funded last year’s REAP through the $1-a-day penalty on tags, instead of the 25-cents-a-day penalty.

“Fifty cents of that went to transportation and the other 50 funded REAP,” he said.

But Wilson is not sure where that will leave the program this year, considering the multitude of cuts threatening some of the most basic needs of Oklahomans.

“It’s not just the REAP thing,” he said. “It’s the mental health issue, too. It’s something Republicans have identified as a personal problem. If I had to gamble, I am guessing the program won’t survive. I don’t look for it to come back; the Republicans never liked REAP program.”

Welch said it’s not just the town of Hulbert that will suffer; several entities like rural fire departments could be affected, too.

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