In a rural area with an aging population, declining school enrollment, remote health care, education, and communication resources, community leaders and legislators representing northern Michigan sometimes feel their needs are not understood by the political powers in Lansing. To help state policy makers understand the unique challenges facing people in northern Michigan, State Representative Gary McDowell (D-Rudyard), with backing from House Democratic Leader Dianne Byrum and Governor Jennifer Granholm, will head a new task force designed to focus on the specific needs of the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula. The task force will seek ideas from people working in education, health care, economics, and the environment to prepare a report for the full legislature and the governor that can be used as a blueprint to build future legislative plans.

The task force will bring people together to generate new ideas, big or small, that may be helpful in changing the way government works for people in northern Michigan, Mr. McDowell told The St. Ignace News .

“We all know what the problems are, but maybe we’ll get some new ideas, even small ones, that have been missed,” he said. “We’re so different from Grand Rapids and Detroit, and we want Lansing to understand that. We want our voices heard, and we don’t want to be forgotten. After we gather our information and make our report, we may find that the governor may be able to make changes that would help us within state departments, or some of the changes may take new legislation to be accomplished.”

Mr. McDowell said the area’s remoteness and sparse population have contributed to unique challenges for residents.

“We have an aging infrastructure, and declining school enrollment, but it is not practical to consolidate schools here because of the distances involved,” he said. “In the health care area, we have hospitals 50 or 100 miles apart instead of blocks apart, as they are in cities. Hospitals need to submit a certificate of need to the state for approval of each new equipment or service, such as adding a CT scanning unit. You have to be able to prove that the service will be used by a certain number of people. We do have people here who need these services, and it is difficult to prove our needs to the state under the present system.”

Similar challenges face people of the area in communications, technology, and job training opportunities, he said.

“We are still in the process of putting the task force together, and getting leaders together from across the spectrum,” Mr. McDowell said. “We will start with public meetings, probably in May, and hope to have our full report finished by the first of next year. The idea was proposed between myself and Dianne Byrum about a month ago, and we have already had a lot of interest in this. So many people have offered to serve. I know we’ll have a good group.”

Mr. McDowell said the task force will lay the groundwork for future northern Michigan legislators.

“With term limits, we don’t serve very long,” he said. “We’d like to get something in place so new legislators will be able to pick up our work without starting over and re-inventing the wheel. If needs are already identified, we’ll have a good start for them.”

Mr. McDowell is also working on making the public aware of problems with the importation of trash into Michigan from other states and Canada. A public meeting on the topic drew about 60 people to the township hall in Dafter Thursday, April 14, Mr. McDowell said. The meeting was the first of several he has planned to draw public attention to the situation.

“People want to do something about this concern,” he said. “We’re quickly filling up our landfills with other people’s trash. We planned ahead in Michigan for our own needs for the next 50 years, and in doing so we’ve become a magnet for other states and Canada. We’ve made it too cheap to dump in Michigan.”

About 28 percent of Michigan landfill space is being filled by imported trash, he noted. Bills are being drafted and introduced to raise landfill fees for out-of-state haulers, but he said there is not enough support in Lansing to pass the bills without a push of public support, such as that raised at the Dafter meeting.