01/23/09 Rural roads

The arrival of 2009 brings a great deal of despair due to economic woes and certainly an almost urgent sense of hope. The onus is now on the Obama administration to try to turn our economy around.. The term economic stimulus package has been used generously but most often within the context of bailouts&for banks, mortgage lenders, automobile manufacturers, you name it&corporate America has its collective hand out. Farmers and ag producers aren't often mentioned in terms of standing in line for a handout and for that we should all be proud. However, the Obama administration has made it clear that it wants to spend money putting people back to work and one way to do that is to get folks busy re-building infrastructure such as roads. The question for Idaho's ag industry is& are rural roads going to be serviced. June Sparks, communication specialist with the Idaho Department of Transportation: Agriculture is one of Idaho's top industries, if not the top industry. We have wheat farmers, potato farmers, sugar beets, dairy, cattle&we even have a wine industry. Good roads are what get the produce to market. So, yes, roads are very important and as legislators come up with their wish lists for their various districts to hand to the Obama team for the stimulus package, they need to take that into account and certainly they hears from the farmers and they know the importance of good roads and yes you can believe that many of those rural roadways will be a part of the stimulus package.