Here's an update on what has been gathered in the past few days. The first is an email from Ernie Wetherbee the State Housing Director for the Rural Development Program. The second is from Araceli Rodriequez a memer of Representative Grijalva's staff.

Dan,

USDA is currently reviewing the rural area designation as is required by our regulations. We are currently required to review every 5 years and every three years in high growth areas. As you know, Buckeye has exploded since the receipt of the 2000 census and is currently above 25,000 which is the maximum population under our guidelines.

Several communities have expressed concern over losing our services, but please understand that this is not an optional decision on our part it is a condition of our appropriation and the rural designation is something that is passed by congress.

I have had contact from Congressman Franks office and I understand that he is looking into this matter. I have asked that we be kept informed of any proposed plan that would provide us with the authority we need to exempt Buckeye from the population limit until at least the receipt of the 2010 census.

I would be happy to receive your comments, in fact they should go to our state director at:

eddie.browning@az.usda.gov

As it stands today, we are into at least February before a decision will be made.

I don't have the numbers readily available as to the exact amount of assistance that has gone into Buckeye this year fiscal year, (which began on Oct 1) but I would estimate that we have obligated approximately 15 million dollars in guaranteed loans during that time period.

Please contact me if you have any questions, or would like to discuss this matter further.

Ernie WetherbeeRH Program DirectorUSDA Rural Development230 N 1st Ave., Suite 206Phoenix, AZ 85003602-280-8764602-280-8726 Faxernie.wetherbee@az.usda.gov


Hi Dan,

Thanks for the information. After your phone call, I inquired with the USDA Rural Development Manager for this area, who provided me with a little more insight on the issue. In the case of Casa Grande, the city’s population had exceeded the 25,000 threshold by about 200 people. In addition, the City of Casa Grande itself, and not a non-profit organization like in most cases, is a grantee of self-help program funds. Thus, the city was able to argue to USDA Rural Development that the families on their waiting list would not be able to build their homes if the designation was lost and thus made the request on those grounds.

On the other hand, Havasu City and Kingman also asked USDA if they could keep the rural designation when they exceeded the threshold a couple years ago, but the cities’ population had exceeded the 25,000 limit by over 20,000 people and they their requests were denied. As the email below states, the population figures for the Buckeye area are unknown to me as well, but if the population has grown tremendously, it may be the case that the request is denied. In addition, no USDA Rural Development grantee operates in this area. The only assistance available to Buckeye and the area is the guaranteed loan program.

I have already forwarded your request to our D.C. office and will make sure to contact you when I have more information.

Best,

Araceli Rodríguez
Community Representative (serving Yuma and La Paz Counties)
Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva, AZ07
928.343.7933
928.581.3402 (cell)
http://grijalva.house.gov