Our small towns are shrinking. Why isn't our government changing with them?

By Dr. Jay Callegari

Think back 30 or 40 years to what our small towns in Avoyelles Parish looked like. Most had an active Main Street with five-and-dime stores, hardware stores, clothing stores, grocery stores and other small businesses. People shopped locally, those businesses employed our neighbors, and the money spent there helped support our communities and their governments.

Drive through some of those same towns today and look at what's left. Many of the stores are gone, and buildings that once housed thriving businesses are now empty or being used for storage.

I can give you a personal example in Cottonport. I recently purchased a building that was once a thriving grocery store. I bought it for pennies on the dollar compared to what a functioning commercial property like that once might have been worth. Today, I'm using it for storage because the building simply doesn't have the retail value it once had. A place that once brought customers into town and provided jobs is now more useful to me as a warehouse.

I call part of what's happening the "small world" phenomenon. The world hasn't gotten smaller in distance, but technology has changed how we shop, work and do business.

Amazon and the changing world

Look at what internet shopping has done to retail businesses. Even larger cities are losing longtime stores and shopping malls. If retailers are struggling in places with tens of thousands of customers, imagine what that means for a little town in Avoyelles Parish.

And then there's Amazon. They say it's a jungle out there, and I guess with Amazon that saying has taken on a whole new meaning. You could probably take every store that ever operated in Bunkie, Cottonport, Marksville and Mansura, put all their merchandise together, and still not have a fraction of what you can find on Amazon.

We can order just about anything from our recliners with a few taps on our phones and have it delivered to our door without ever putting on our shoes.

I'm as guilty as anybody. It's convenient, and I'm not suggesting we quit shopping online. But when we wonder why the local hardware store or five-and-dime isn't there anymore, we need to recognize that the way people shop has changed. What concerns me is that our local governments haven't necessarily changed along with it.

Businesses leave, government remains

Avoyelles Parish has numerous municipalities, each with its own mayor, council and municipal responsibilities. Many maintain separate police departments, water systems, street departments and administrative operations.

These government structures developed when our communities looked quite different. There were more businesses in many downtown areas and, in some cases, considerably more people living in the towns.

The population numbers tell part of the story. According to the U.S. Census, Avoyelles Parish went from 42,073 residents in 2010 to 39,693 in 2020. Bunkie is an even more striking example. In 1990, it had 5,044 residents. By 2020, that number had fallen to 3,346, a decline of approximately one-third.

Now think about what that means for a town trying to maintain streets, water lines, police protection and other services. Bunkie's population may have declined by a third, but its streets haven't gotten a third shorter, and its water system hasn't gotten a third smaller.

I'd like to compare what our municipalities collected in taxes decades ago with today's collections, adjusted for inflation. Even with declining populations, online sales can generate local taxes. But how much goes toward administration and elected officials compared with employees providing essential services?

I'm not suggesting any particular town is wasting money. I'm suggesting we ought to examine whether the way we've always operated is still the best way.

Rethinking local Government

When a business loses customers, it has to adjust expenses or change how it operates. Government doesn't face those same pressures in quite the same way.

One possible answer is consolidating certain municipal operations or sharing more services between neighboring towns. Do we really need separate equipment and administrative operations when some services might be provided more efficiently together?

I realize that's not going to be popular with everybody. Our towns have their own identities, histories and elected officials. People are proud of where they live, and elected officials aren't usually eager to eliminate their own positions.

But preserving a town's identity and preserving every government position or department aren't necessarily the same thing.

I don't expect our municipalities to suddenly agree to consolidate. There are legal and financial issues involved, and some services may be better handled locally. Still, we ought to be looking for opportunities to cooperate and reduce expenses.

Getting our communities involved

Another approach is organizing more volunteers to improve our towns. We have people throughout Avoyelles Parish who give their time to churches, schools, festivals and charitable organizations. We've seen what they can accomplish when communities come together.

Why not organize some of that same effort around town beautification and improvement?

Volunteers could organize cleanup days, plant flowers, maintain public spaces, help improve neglected downtown buildings and promote activities that bring people into town. We don't necessarily need another paid government position to organize a cleanup or community improvement project.

I'm not suggesting volunteers replace trained municipal employees. We still need qualified workers to maintain essential services, but residents can help improve their towns without adding to the payroll. Getting involved also builds community pride and encourages people to take better care of where they live.

What about elected officials?

Here's another suggestion that might not be particularly popular with some elected officials.

What if mayors and council members in our smaller municipalities voluntarily gave up some or all of their compensation and put that money back into their communities?

I'm not suggesting every elected official is overpaid. Some mayors carry significant responsibilities, but in smaller towns, council members may attend only a few meetings each month while municipalities struggle to pay employees competitive wages.

Wouldn't it be something if an elected official stood up and said, "I didn't run for office to make money. I ran because I wanted to help my town. If the money I'm receiving could be better used to give our employees a raise or improve our community, that's where I'd rather see it go."

Louisiana law restricts reducing an elected official's compensation during a term, but the Legislative Auditor has explained that officials may accept their paychecks and donate the money back to their municipalities. Those funds would need to be handled properly through the municipal budget.

Depending on the amount involved, this might not make a tremendous difference financially, but it could help an employee or fund an improvement the town otherwise couldn't afford. More importantly, it would demonstrate the kind of leadership we ought to encourage.

Towns still have a future

I don't believe our small towns are beyond saving, but we need to change how we think about them. We're probably never going to have the same number of hardware stores, five-and-dimes and other small businesses that we had decades ago. People shop differently, work differently and live differently.

That doesn't mean we should give up. It means we need to operate more efficiently, make better use of our resources and encourage residents to become more involved.

I'd like to see our municipal leaders seriously examine their budgets and operations. Maybe that means sharing equipment with a neighboring town, organizing volunteers to improve neglected areas or elected officials deciding their compensation could do more good elsewhere in the community.

I don't expect everyone to agree with these suggestions, and there may be better ideas. I'd certainly like to hear them. But it's a conversation we need to have in Avoyelles Parish.

We spend a lot of time talking about what our towns used to be. I'd rather see us spend some of that time figuring out what they can become.