Rural development

Four years after fighting off a controversial chicken processing plant, the growing Leavenworth County community approved a deal with little fuss to bring in Topeka-based Hill’s Pet Nutrition with a 10-year, 100% tax abatement.

For small towns with dwindling populations and shrinking tax bases, luring travelers to stop and spend a few dollars is a matter of community survival. Some turn to quirky roadside tourist attractions. And the community pride these offbeat sites generate can be just as valuable as the money they bring in.

For Kansans living in Liberal, Dodge City and Hays, there’s only one airline that flies to and from the local airport. So when that airline filed paperwork this spring to terminate services, it sent shockwaves through these remote towns.

Installing fiber-optic internet in sparsely populated places like western Kansas is extremely expensive, even with government subsidies. But some smaller, local broadband providers are finding ways to make it work where the big national companies have not.

The work done by a dedicated group in the small town in southeast Kansas caught the attention of The New York Times.

Small towns far from big cities rely upon federal grants to help them, but numerous definitions of what the government considers rural make that complicated.

La pandemia causada por el COVID-19 ha disparado los precios de la vivienda en todo el país en lugares que durante mucho tiempo se mantuvieron estables. Los pueblos rurales que están muy remotos, donde los precios de los bienes raíces se mantuvieron bajos durante décadas, están viendo ahora aumentos desmesurados de precios sin precedentes, que están agravando los problemas de la gente pobre rural.

Ranchers in Nebraska are rebelling against the “Big Four” meat companies by planning their own beef processing plant. They’re seeking a transformation for themselves, the industry and western Nebraska.

Four decades after Garden City’s meatpacking boom began, the southwest Kansas town is still strained by growing pains. And its prosperity remains uneven.

Murals have become a trend across rural Kansas. Here's why more small towns are starting to turn to larger-than-life outdoor artwork.

A lack of child care options in rural Kansas leaves families desperate and threatens the future of small towns.

Humboldt, Kansas, was an example of a Midwestern town that had overcome the Great Recession and a loss of population by improving the quality of life in town with community pitch-in projects.