We've often heard or read about the population loss in Miner County. What we don't often hear is what it means for those of us who still live here. Why should we care? How is it going to change our way of life?

Some things we hold valuable about life in small towns don't have to change with the dropping number of people. We will still be able to gather with friends or family for a backyard barbecue or birthday celebration. We will still feel safe on our streets and enjoy the relative peacefulness that we appreciate about this place. We will still be able to spend an afternoon with our children in the park, read them a bedtime story at night, and fall asleep with our feet up in front of the TV.

All that is true. The character of our lives doesn't have to change just because there are fewer people around us. But the specifics of our lives will inevitably be altered in other significant ways.

The example that is often given to show why we should be concerned about population loss is the resulting decrease in tax revenues for our local governments. That's an easy one to pinpoint, and the effects could be noticeable. The infrastructure of our county-the roads, utilities, and city layouts-was constructed long ago based upon the needs and demands of a much higher population.

Today, there are fewer people to pay for the maintenance on those same systems. If the population decline continues governmental resources will be stretched even further.

But perhaps the most compelling reasons to be concerned about losing people in our communities are not strictly about finances and tax revenues. They are about community members meeting their own needs and being self-sustaining. They are about the human need to share our lives with others and be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

With each long-standing business in Miner County that closes because of a customer base that is too small, we lose the ability to handle locally the things those businesses have always done for us. We become more dependent on stores and suppliers in other places to fulfill our needs, and something happens to the pulse of our own community.

Church enrollments fall, and with that, so does the level to which the churches can be available to play an active role in the lives of its parishioners. Civic organizations lose the ability to mobilize large groups of people for projects that would have once been enthusiastically attended.

So, there will still be much to appreciate about our rural life. But when there are no other kids for ours to play with in the park and the streets we feel so safe on are in disrepair, we will become painfully aware that things have changed. That's why it's important to explore, right now, things we can do to keep that from ever happening. In future Miner Notes columns, we will do precisely that.

This week, we will open the subject of population loss among our elderly. Our rate of loss of people age 65 and over is more than double the next highest rate among the surrounding counties. The rate of loss in that age group is even higher than in other age brackets, which are also losing large numbers. And it's not due strictly to people passing away. Many are moving out.

Loss of our elderly has a more significant impact than might be immediately evident. First, there are the human concerns. The elderly of our communities are our links to the past. The 20th century has been an incredible time in human history, and many of them have lived through most of it. They've seen more of the world and the changes that have taken place in it than anyone else.

There's a sense of continuity in a community when all ages interact, and it enriches the lives of everyone involved. Older people can teach us things about how to live and what kind of people to strive to be. Our senior population is an incredible resource, and if we can just learn to appreciate that fact, we gain opportunities to grow as individuals and as a community.

There is, of course, always a financial aspect to population loss, and the loss of our elderly population has a greater impact on the finances of our community than one might guess.

Miner Notes was a weekly column written by Matt Laible for MCCR to promote understanding about the place we call home - Miner County. If you have questions or comments, please contact MCCR by calling 772-5153 or writing to P. O. Box 307 in Howard.