May 9, 2014 5 min read

The Greene County Messenger (April 11-17) and sister newspaper the Herald-Standard (April 8) both published a front-page article that addressed the continuing decline in census figures for both Greene and Fayette counties. The decline bodes ill for the underprivileged, particularly Greene County, where this seems inherently to be a significant part of our culture.

The article reports a sitting Greene County commissioner predicting that if this trend continues we could drop from currently a sixth class county down to a seventh class. That would position us one class above the lowest in a field of eight classes. I find it interesting to note that our dismal county class level matches our dismal economic and median income levels, dwelling down among the lowest four percent of the state’s 67 counties.

Regarding the census decline, the commissioner is quoted as saying, “We are trying to improve the numbers,” and is further quoted, “Our major problem is that we have difficulty in getting water and sewerage to different parts of our rural municipalities, and people are just not inclined to consider building or buying a house or a business in an area that does not have public water and sewerage services.”

At this point, I am compelled to bring to the fore the phrase “rural municipality” in the foregoing quote. By definition, the two words are antonyms having opposite meanings. The word “rural” means rustic, pastoral, country and agricultural. The word “municipality” means city and town. Fusing the two opposite meaning words together in a phrase creates an oxymoron. The word “oxymoron” means “acutely silly.” Predictably, an acutely silly government will lead to difficulties in developing public water and sewerage services as well as everything else, for that matter. In a rural municipality, the privileged interests overpower the underprivileged in the manner that a slaveholder overpowers a slave.

Following many generations of denial in Greene County, the need for public water and sewerage for homes and businesses has gained a small degree of credence. However, I question the commissioner’s premise that these needs are “our major problem.”

Prospective home owners search for essentials well beyond water and sewerage. The list includes, but is not limited to, world class schools and libraries, quality medical services and hospitals (we have what is called a medical center), care services for the elderly, adequate roads and highways designed for safe expedient travel and transport, storm water management, convenient access to purveyors of food and provisions, restaurants offering fare a cut above short order and fast food, etc.

Storm water management is an essential service long denied in Greene County. Roads prone to flooding are identified with signs. Basement flooding and sump pumps are commonplace. The water table in my neighborhood is such that during installation of my mobile home a sump pump was installed to facilitate completion of the job. The pump has functioned as needed for the past 25 years. The 1980 Comprehensive Plan for my municipality identified the need for a storm water management program. Never having been acted upon, the need was simply deleted during the last plan revision. In Morrisville, the railroad underpass runs through the Ten Mile Creek flood plain. The underpass currently is being expanded from two to four lanes. In Greene County, that sort of acute silliness goes for “promoting the general welfare.”

Approximately 10 years ago, state Senator J. Barry Stout personally attended a local transportation planning meeting. Stout appealed passionately to the panel for acceptance of the planned Route 21 bypass of the Waynesburg-Morrisville traffic bottleneck. The senator said he worked long and hard to acquire the funding and the planning. The project was shovel ready and all that was needed was acceptance by responsible county agents. Regrettably, that did not happen. Obviously, we don’t want no stinkin’ bypass.

Employment opportunities in Greene County historically have been hard to come by. In 1862, the county constructed a Poor House that operated for three quarters of a century through the Civil war, Spanish-American War and World War I and on into the 1920s. The Poor House survives as our most durable and impressive relic that today serves as the county museum.

Upon graduating in 1952 from a local high school, I joined the historic exodus of eight in 10 graduates from Greene County to search for means to earn our daily bread. Returning six years later, I became aware of the rapid ebbing of coal mine production. Everything else seemed exactly as it had been six years in the past. I asked a local businessman what may be planned to replace “King Coal” in the economy.

I was astonished to learn that nothing was planned to replace coal production. I was stunned when told the plan was for Greene County to become a bedroom community. The theory being that people would be employed somewhere else (unspecified) and live in Greene County.

Today, more than half a century later, a county commissioner attributes our population decline to difficulty in providing public water and sewerage services to prospective home owners.

It is glaringly obvious to the underprivileged that the bedroom community plan is ill-conceived and inoperative since inception. Yet, the commissioner is trying to to make it work. Sadly, it is like beating a dead horse.

In conclusion, I ask: What would most likely make Greene County prosperous and beautiful, public water and sewerage to rural municipalities, or rain for 40 days and 40 nights?

Paul Lagojda,

Cumberland Township