News from rural America.

Rural counties have higher traffic death rates compared to urban, factions have formed around Colorado's proposed Dolores National Monument, and a much-needed Kentucky grocery store is using a federal grant to slash future utility bills.

TRANSCRIPT

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, this is the news from rural America.

We all expect accidents on six-lane interstates and busy city streets.

But Daily Yonder data reporter Sarah Mallott found Governor's Highway Safety Association figures show traffic deaths per mile traveled are significantly higher on rural roads.

The risk of dying in a car accident is 62 percent higher on a rural road compared to an urban road of the same trip length.

Mallott says about a quarter of all traffic fatalities happen on rural stretches.

This is partly due to things like slower emergency response times, higher speed limits, and riskier driving behavior like not wearing a seatbelt.

Plus, rural folks drive more, so have a higher chance of being in an accident.

Surprisingly, traffic deaths, rural and urban, actually rose during the pandemic, when people were advised to be homebound.

Not everyone in southwest Colorado agrees with a proposed national monument designation on the Dolores River.

Alana Newman explains.

Nucla and Natarita on Colorado's western slope welcome visitors, but the towns don't want to become seasonal tourist destinations.

Michaela Gordon with the West End Economic Development Corporation says outdoor recreation, while generating sales tax, isn't the revenue stream they want to fully rely on.

Outdoor recreation doesn't always relate to high wage jobs, and so mining could assist with some of those higher wage jobs that don't always equate to sales tax development.

Scott Breeden with the Protect the Dolores Coalition of Nonprofits believes the designation will protect the area's cultural and natural value.

A national monument is a way to get ahead on that and make some intelligent choices around building out infrastructure on the public land.

I'm Alana Newman.

More than 20 percent of homes in East Kentucky regularly face hunger, made worse when grocery stores are few and far between.

One store is staying open in part thanks to a federal energy grant.

Family owned for 60 years, Long's Pick Pack in Pineville was the state's first grocer to install a solar array and battery.

Mike Long says it'll slash their utility bills.

This projection that we've got going now, I think is going to free up about $2,800 in the best month.

Long also got help from the Rural Energy for America program to upgrade to more energy efficient refrigerators and freezers.

Despite being one of the least profitable industries, Long says grocery stores like his keep communities going.

We need to have stores like this in rural areas.

If tomorrow you close our door, somebody's got to drive 15, 20 miles to get fresh produce to get meat that's cut.

Federal data shows more than 75 U.S. counties no longer have a single grocery store.

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, I'm Roz Brown.

For more rural stories, visit dailyyonder.com.