EDITOR:
The U.S. Census Bureau and the Nevada State Demographer both agree that the senior population (above age 64) of Douglas County has been declining during the last three years. This has occurred while the senior population of the United States has been increasing at a significant rate.
These statistics will even appear worse after the 2010 census is published since the census bureau is not making any special effort to count the elderly in Douglas County. Seniors and retirees are an extraordinary asset for any area. They bring outside money into the county in the form of IRA's, life savings, 401K's, annuities, Social Security, Medicare and retirement payments from their former employers.
There has been a lot of talk lately about how to attract new businesses to Douglas County in order to ease the impact of the current recession. The problem is that many of our existing county businesses are dependent upon the senior population. Without this income from our seniors and retirees, recovery of Douglas County's economy will be extremely difficult.
Our local politicians and bureaucrats don't appear to comprehend why our senior population is on the decline. All they have to do is inquire among the seniors who live in our county. As just one senior, I have been able to generate a list of 12 major reasons why our senior population is on the decline which I would be glad to present or publish.
Most of these problems can be resolved without impacting the county's budget. For example, several thousand of our seniors have recently been subjected to paying flood insurance amounting to about $1,000 per year which they never expected when they purchased their homes in Douglas County.
Who is going to buy a house which FEMA has declared to be in a flood plain and who will guarantee that FEMA will not expand their flood plain area definitions in the near future?
Now that we are in the midst of the election season, the voters should require that our politicians explain how they plan to abate the current exodus of our seniors but also how to attract new retirees and their families to Douglas County.
Paul Lockwood
Minden
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