OFF THE CUFF Some New Year's predictions

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

I usually go into a trance just before New Year’s Day and share the revelations with readers so they will know what the future is going to bring for people in the area.

It just couldn’t happen this year. No trance. No predictions. What a bummer! I still remember the year I got two predictions right for that 12-month period. One was that it rained on the Fourth of July; the other that it snowed on Christmas Day.

Oh, well. So much for tradition. The way things are so mixed up these days, tradition has gone out the window. I’ll settle on population. Now that’s a popular subject for the opening days of 2011: What is the population going to be for Gentry? For Decatur? For Gravette? For all the other communities in the county? And thecounty?

We should be hearing county population figures pretty soon. We read that at the state level, Arkansas has passed Kansas in total population. And it is probably a given that Benton County is number two in the state behind that Little Rock complex.

Most towns in ourcounty have experienced growth as well as area size, so most will be bigger and more populous than 10 years ago. Some, like Gravette, probably won’t show big growth. Not as much as could have occurred had the city limits been extended five or six years ago.

The downside of smaller growth is that state turnback funds, as well as the city’s share of county sales tax receipts, will not be as impressive as for faster growing cities. Some may even see a decrease which will further strain city budgeting for the next 10 years.

Which brings us to a prediction I made in the paper on July 5, 1995: That the population center of the geographical United States will be located just south of Gravette by the year 2050.

From 1790 when the center was in Maryland, the star progressed to West Virginia, slipped over Ohio, was in Indiana in 1900, Illinois in 1950 and has been in Missouri since 1980.

In that year the center was located just southwest of St. Louis and by the year 2000 it had moved appreciably closer to northwest Arkansas. Where the 2010 census puts the star has not been announced, but somehow it’s moving closer to our area.

So I’m going to revise my 1995 prediction to suggest that in only 20 years - by 2030 - the center actually will be just southwest of Gravette or, if not there, at least in Benton County.

As the increase in population of southern and western states continues, there is every possibility 2030 will be the defining year. I won’t be around then, but maybe someone, somewhere will remember my ramblings when they mark that spot with a pile of rocks, or a big stick, or remembering my recent ‘cuff, a big pile of sweet gum balls.

Gosh, it’s fun to ramble.

At any case, my hope for you is that the coming decade will bring stability and peace and prosperity to all. And that the Westside Eagle Observer will continue to chronicle the happenings of the area.

P.S. We hope and trust that you were blessed during the Christmas season and that this new year will bring you health and happiness and, as an aside, that gas prices will drop drastically and that a degree of stability will return to our nation.

Dodie Evans is the editor emeritus of the Westside Eagle Observer and may be contacted by e-mail at [email protected].

Opinion, Pages 8 on 01/05/2011