McCook can market itself better

McCook is in a position to reverse the trend toward population decline, if we get serious about it.

That's reading a lot into what an expert told a Lincoln audience Thursday, but it's probably not out of line.

The expert, Larry Swanson, director of the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, said Nebraska cities with fewer than 10,000 residents have the best chance of reversing the trends, but only if they move with haste.

He listed "middle places" -- towns like Alliance, York, Sidney, Chadron and Ogallala -- as places with the greatest potential, but we don't think it would be out of line to include McCook in that group.

Some 42 of Nebraska's rural counties lost population since 2000, and their death rates exceeded their birth rates, putting rural areas in a spiral that leaves populations with only one growing segment: those 65 and older.

But, as he told the Grassland Foundation in a story reported by The Associated Press, rural towns offer affordable housing for young families with jobs in technology that allow them to pick their hometowns.

Small, isolated towns should commit serious funding to standing out as interesting places to live that can boast of their own or nearby recreational opportunities.

McCook can do that, with nearby golf, hunting and water sports -- provided the new Republican River Compact plan allows some water to remain in area lakes.

And, provided new taxation associated with staving off a large Kansas judgment doesn't negate our area's advantages in lower-cost housing.

The trick will be providing the right leadership, and applying enough funding in the right way to make it happen.