Harmon county: On the road to nowhere?

Cimarron Co. is located in the Panhandle; Harmon Co. is in the southwest corner of the state

Harmon County isn't alone in trying to find growth on the prairie. According to the latest Census figures, Cimarron County endured the largest population decrease between surveys. Folks from across the county had this to say about life in the Panhandle.

Jody Risley,

director of the Cimarron Heritage Center in Boise City

"The joke right now is we need to build a wall around it (the county), quit letting roads come in and just turn it into a retirement center. That's how bad it's getting.

"Our tax base is just not here and our young people aren't coming back because there's nothing for them to do. We're down to one grocery store, three gas stations, five eating establishments and a garage. That's just about it.”

Kim Jenkins,

Boise City High School principal

"Ninth through 12th grade, I have 85 students; and pre-K through eighth grade there's about 179 students. This is my sixth year at the school, and I started with 122 at the high school, and there's been a similar decline in the elementary students.”

Frankie Armstrong,

Cimarron Memorial Hospital employee

"We have three rural schools that may have to consolidate, and you're talking a sixty-mile commute for some kids. Our hospital has been struggling to stay open, and we're almost 45 minutes from any other facility.

"One of the only industries we have is thinking about moving out because they can't find enough people to employ. It's quite a struggle, and there isn't an easy solution. Population loss and the drought are two big topics of conversation out here.”

Howard Balenseifen,

Cimarron County farmer-rancher

"I've been here since 1944, and I've seen it (the town of Keyes) go from 750 down to around 350-400 now. Housing is a big problem. Even if we got new people in, we have very few houses in town for them to live in. We really got hurt when the helium plant shut down back in the 1980s. That employed up to 100 people. We've been going downhill since then.

"Our sales tax is down to about nothing because almost all our businesses shut down. We lost our last convenience store about six months ago. If you happen to run out of coffee some morning it's 16 miles to Boise City.

"You combine that with the drought we're going through and things in Cimarron County are pretty critical right now. But no one ever said it was going to be easy living out here. If it was, I guess there'd be a lot more people doing it.”

Contributing: State Correspondent Chad Love