The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 12

12A The Miami Herald Monday September 14 1987 f-7 Fighting off the final harvest As businesses go under Dakota town struggles to survive CAREER NIGHT Focusing on Career Opportunities with the Leader in Computer Sales Date: Thurs Sept 17th Time: 7-9 pm Place: Sheraton Hotel 1-95 Griffin Road Fort Lauderdale Looking for an opportunity to take advantage of your background in computers or sales? Want to grow financially and professionally? Hear what the industry leader has to say about careers in computer sales! Call Computerland for reservations for our career workshop Coral Gables 444-6225 No Miami Bch 944-2788 REVOLUTION ON THE FARM THE FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL LAST OF TWO PARTS look elsewhere for jobs As a result small-town America is turning gray with more and more communities populated largely by senior citizens Smith said Britton has faced most of the problems troubling small towns It has solved some and is struggling with others Marshall County which surrounds Britton has lost about 100 farmers in the last 10 years 15 percent of the county total said Harland Peterson a county Agriculture Department official Perhaps more significantly the number of acres actually farmed in the county has dropped dramatically About 30000 acres almost 10 percent of the farmland has been entered in the conservation reserve which takes it out of production for 10 years Another 55000 acres are not being farmed because of other government programs That is land that doesn't need fertilizers pesticides or even much attention by a tractor just changed so much They need the people they used to and they afford to buy what they once could" Henehan said leaders hope to offset the decline in the farm economy by luring more small industry to town They speak with pride about the two current residents of their industrial park: Horton Industries and Component Supply Component Supply builds prefabricated building rafters and employs 30 people Horton which manufactures truck clutches recently expanded to employ 100 people has been a said Maris Williams Chamber of Commerce president got to have businesses like that to keep our young people around" But Jack Geller a sociologist at the University of North Dakota said his studies indicate that many rural communities will have difficulty persuading industry to set up shop those very small towns that are not close to an interstate highway they're difficult to get to You have to work to get to By REED KARAIM Herald Wadunt on Bureau BRITTON SD Harvested fields acres of shaved but still golden wheat stubble lap at the edges of this small town Since Britton population 1590 was founded 103 years ago by the Dakota and Great Southern Railroad grain from those fields has been the heart of the local economy Farm dollars circulated from cash register to cash register up and down Main Street It was the same in small towns across the Farm Belt Agriculture was the only industry that really mattered Today eight empty storefronts litter the short two blocks on Main Street Britton's business district The vacant interiors and dusty windows are the final harvest from the farm financial crash of the 1980s The town has lost three auto dealers three gasoline stations a clothing store a grocery and a drugstore The mayor and the president of the local chamber of commerce say other businesses have closed and their owners moved on Main Street reflects the changing face of small towns and foreshadows what many sociologists and economists see as a bleak future for rural communities reached a point where a whole way of life is slipping into the said Pat Smith a rural sociologist at Clemson University in South Carolina Yet on the edge of Britton on land that was once farmed two small manufacturing plants employ 130 people And local leaders point to that tiny industrial park when they consider the future They also talk about how they kept their railroad line operating when Burlington Northern abandoned it and how they managed to keep their 38-bed hospital open The town used a partnership with business to hold on to the hospital and worked with state and county government to keep its rail line efforts are an example of the kinds of ventures that could help other small towns them and just not that attractive to larger businesses" he said i Isolation has worsened in the 1980s with the railroads and airlines pulling out and many rural communities have been struggling to hold on to doctors and hospitals I Some like Britton are finding ways to cope When Burlington Northern abandoned the spur of tracks that reached into Britton the town responded by helping to form a regional railroad authority that purchased the line and kept it open To keep hospital from closing because of a low occupancy rate the county leased it to the larger St Luke's in Aberdeen SD 60 miles away Such actions indicate that the survival of many small towns may depend on more activist local governments involved in a partnership with businesses to keep communities alive i But Alvin Sokolow a political science professor at the University of California at Davis said his recent study of local governments indicates that the farm crisis has caused sapping of will and energy and strength which is bound to affect how these communities are Several sociologists said surveys of rural communities show that the majority of their residents are not optimistic about the future For example studies found that only 1 1 percent of the small-town citizens believe their community is a good place to start a business But Smith the Clemson sociologist noted that experts have been predicting the death of small towns for decades and yet they persist fortunate that they listen to the economists that keep telling them they should die he said And Maris Peterson whose drugstore on Main Street is doing just fine struck an optimistic note: will be here going to make MT NORTH DAKOTA Britton WY Pierre SOUTH DAKOTA NEBRASKA facing a lean future really feel holding even and pretty good these Mayor Delores Henehan said Britton in its struggle to survive and maintain a quality of life people once took for granted is typical of hundreds of small towns in the Farm Belt Roughly 260000 farmers have left agriculture in the 1980s Those who have survived have learned to make do with less of everything Many of the biggest farmers now bypass local merchants and buy supplies in bulk from larger business centers At the same time the railroads have abandoned many of their less profitable lines to small towns the federal government has cut programs like revenue sharing that benefited rural communities and the planes and buses have stopped showing up The toll has been a steady increase during the 1980s in small-town business bankruptcies and closings A recent North Dakota study found that one-third of the businesses in rural communities have either failed or are in trouble With little economic opportunity in rural communities more and more young people are forced to COMPLETE EYEGLASSES 50 and receive them for HALF PRICE! OFF Purchase any pair of prescription glasses Cazal Dior Nikon Liz Claiborne Smany more1 EYE EXAMINATIONS'AVAIUBLE BYTAN INDEPENDEN OPTOMETRIST OR BRING IN YOUR PRESCRIPTION' SOFT DAILY WEAR from $3999 Durasoft COLORED Brown eyes to BLUE $14999 Exam addtl Philly ready to toast Constitution FREE Hearing Test Ask aboul the BELTONE OOE CANAL AiD This so uny youH hardly know there By appt only SEMINOLE (Seminole Ma'I) 397-2979 SOUTH MIAMI (11801 Dixie Hwy Sunuand) 253 5525 LAKE PARK (Norh Lake Bivd 863 5668 PEMBROKE PINES (Pines Bivd University) 437-3672 NORTH MIAMI (SrtylaKe Mail) 94 9 0306 NAPLES (Park $nore Plaza) 434 0500 BRANDON (475 Brandon Bivd 654-4534 ST PETERSBURG (Gateway Mall) 576-2541 PORT CHARLOTTE (N Miami Dnve) 625 6467 JACKSONVILLE (Argyle Shpg Ctr Orange Park) 771-5224 WEST PALM BEACH (Palm Coast Plaza) 586 6105 EXTENDED WEAR from $7099 Expires 93187 poor i)Bi Optical "OnS Hearing Aid Center Bring us your tired your tution will be distributed during one part of the parade part of which will be open to anyone who wants to march along Rogers said the show-stopper occurs at 1 1:40 am when Reagan exits Independence Hall to address the nation As he approaches the lectern 1500 white doves will soar aloft as two big floats one depicting the American flag and another the Liberty Bell arrive at the steps A military band will strike up as the Philadelphia Boys Choir begins to sing America the Beautiful Rogers said "will be a very dramatic After speech the third and final segment of the parade Parade of begins its trek to City Hall On this day people will include 200 college musicians including some from Florida Florida State and the University of Central Florida representing every region of the country Complementing the musicians will be a contingent of California skateboarders Utah doggers Delaware town criers and numerous unions civic organizations and ethnic groups Then at 5:30 pm Walter Cronkite will host a nationally televised special to be broadcast later in the evening from the Philadelphia Civic Center At 8 pm a gala dinner in Pennsylvania Hall for invited guests and VIPs An hour later the focus will shift to the darkened waters of the Delaware River where hundreds of boats and sailing ships will gather to create a festival of lights A little later the skies will blaze with a fireworks extravaganza And about 11 pm the switch for a long-awaited computerized lighting scheme will be thrown and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge will burst into color ending with a flourish the 14 hours of celebrating 200 years of the your wired PHILLY from I A Philly Pops At 4 pm Burger chairman of the Federal Commission on the Bicentennial of the US Constitution is scheduled to begin ringing the Centennial Bell inside Independence Hall initiating the ringing of bells throughout Philadelphia and the nation If the good folks at We The People 200 the official organizers of the mammoth celebration seem slightly exhausted and a little spent these days understandable exhausted nervous those are all adjectives that would certainly be appropriate right said Phyllis Polk who has worked closely with We The People 200 from the beginning there also is an enormous sense of gratification and relief as the big day draws And if exhaustion is understandable so too perhaps is the flicker of a slight smile on many of the faces Twelve months and $17 million later they are a scant four days from the finish line When the race began the 30 full-time paid staff members and 1200 volunteers endured bountiful dollops of stinging criticism and unyielding skepticism Initially plagued by few donations high turnover low morale and a couple of building snafus organizers weathered all the difficulties They now appear on schedule for pulling off $8 million grand finale of the yearlong constitutional celebration spring there were many people here who really doubted whether we could cater a dinner for three" said Sam Rogers the spokesman on Thursday when people really see some of these floats and really grasp what this parade is all about I think be pleasantly A huge amount of work has New storm threatening in Atlantic L'nik'd International Tropical Storm Dennis slogged across the open Atlantic on Sunday a fading storm that posed only a minor threat to shipping but a new tropical threat formed in the ocean 425 miles southeast of Antigua Maximum winds of the new depression were 35 miles per hour according to the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables The depression was moving west-northwest at about 10 mph and was expected to continue that motion into today At Independence Hall 1500 doves will be released and two floats will arrive as President Reagan approaches the lectern yourwom out Raul Rodriguez the genius behind many of the Tournament of Roses parade floats Some of the floats will combine squads of 20th Century robots with Colonial fife and drum corps to create dazzling floats illustrating two centuries of the history To help emphasize that history thousands of copies of the Consti And well give you $75 off a new You know the hearing aid you have That you keep in the top drawer under your soots That you think is absolutely worthless Well worth $75 Off a new Mirade-Ear the tiny but advanced hearing aid Just bring in your outmoded model We'll give you a free hearing evaluation Then let you "test listen" to hear how a Mirade-Ear could sound You'D learn how you can improve the quality of your hearing your life and your drawer space arms pact called near been poured into the parade Divided into three parts the first segment will attempt to re-create the Federal of 1788 The second segment will combine hi-tech wizardry and costumes to illustrate the meaning of the preamble Many of the floats were conceived and designed by Radio City Music Hall technicians and by US-Soviet ARMS from I A man the chief US arms negotiator said Friday that the Soviet demand had slowed the pace of the arms talks in Geneva and raised questions about whether Moscow really wanted to reach an agreement But on Sunday Shultz described the dispute as primarily a matter of semantics He said the US position was much closer to the proposal which the Soviets introduced formally in Geneva than it was to the public comments of Soviet spokesmen Kampelman said Friday that the United States rejected the Soviet demand for destruction of the warheads because it injected a new element in the negotiations that had been limited to missiles Moreover he said there was no way to verify the destruction of a OPENING SOON IN DADELAND AVENTURA CUTLER RIDGE MALU HEARING AID WORLD HEARING CENTERS OF AMERICA 255-9210 956-9655 South Dado ififlO ifi-l 5T By Appt Only South Part Center OU WC 1W Ol agenda for the Shultz-Shevard-nadze talks arms control human rights regional issues and bilateral issues This is the same agenda which the United States hopes to cover at the next summit meeting between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev The United States has invited Gorbachev to visit Washington but the Soviets have not yet formally accepted In contrast to earlier US-Soviet talks when Moscow chafed at the US emphasis on human rights Shevardnadze said he was prepared to discuss the issue indicating that he would try to put own stamp on it shall lay special emphasis on discussing humanitarian issues all that has to do with the human dimension of world politics" he said nuclear device by either side However Shultz said Sunday that an analysis of the official Soviet position appeared to indicate that Moscow shared the US view that the explosive nuclear device from the warhead should be removed but need not be destroyed He said the Soviets were insisting only on destruction of the that transports the nuclear device He said that issue was negotiable think that probably if we can work out the details of that just right probably that will be workable" Shultz said In his arrival statement Shevardnadze said the Soviet side was to deal with the problems facing us in a businesslike creative The United States and the Soviet Union have agreed on a four-part NORTH MIAMI 456-3630 GULFSTREAM PROMENADE 622 HALLANDALE BCH BLVD HALLANOALE 286-7227 2319 FEDERAL HWY 567-2811 Stuart VERO MALL 1255 US 1 VERO BEACH Miracle-Ear a EB EtL Centers lOkl Serpentarmm Location) 12651 OuieHwy 304 Miami 454-3700 DIPLOMAT MALL 1603 HALLANDALE BCH BLVO HALLANDALE 683-6080 PALM BEACH MALL SUITE 296 WEST PALM BEACH 461-4550 ORANGE BLOSSOM MALL 4184 OKEECHOBEE HD FORT PIERCE One discount per customer 1987 Dahlbere Inc i i fy.