COLUMBUS — Appalachian Ohio, a region that historically has struggled compared with the rest of the state, has new worries: A dramatic increase in poverty rates in which several counties had at least 20 percent of their population living in poverty.

Some local officials in Appalachian Ohio are skeptical of the U.S. Census study released Wednesday for 2005 that indicates poverty is worsening in the region, while others say the loss of even one employer in a less populated area can push up the poverty rate.

Scioto County Commissioner Thomas Reiser says he has a hard time believing that about 4,500 more people in that county were living in poverty in 2005, compared with the year before, because new jobs have come into the area.

“We recognize that, yep, poverty is a big problem in the Appalachian counties for a variety of reasons,” Reiser said. “In Scioto County, at least, we see a lot of things happening.”

While Athens County’s poverty rate is said to have jumped to 31.5 percent in 2005 from 20.2 in 2004, the head of the local Chamber of Commerce says the presence of Ohio University students typically inflates the numbers.

The 2000 census showed the county’s poverty rate was 27.4 percent, but when OU students — who make up 30 percent of the population — were removed, the rate dropped to 18.7 percent, chamber chief executive Jennifer Simon said.

Still, Ohio University anthropology and sociology professor Ann Tickamyer says food pantries throughout Appalachian Ohio report they’re struggling to meet demand.

In Athens County, manufacturing jobs, key to keeping people above the poverty line, have been lost. Deluxe Corp.’s closing in 2005 of its McBee Systems check-printing plant left 360 workers unemployed, Athens County Job and Family Services Director Jack Frech said.

“This is the story of Ohio and America,” Frech said.

Other Appalachian counties, such as Pike, Scioto, Lawrence, Gallia and Vinton, all had poverty rates of at least 20 percent in 2005. Other Appalachian counties had double-digit poverty rates.

The rates show a continuation of an all-too-familiar trend for the region, experts said.

“Rural Appalachian Ohio always is more depressed, and more quick to go into recession, and slower to come out of it,” Tickamyer said.

A spokesman with the Appalachian Regional Commission — a federal-state partnership that works to create opportunities for economic development and quality of life improvement in Appalachia — said the poverty rate has improved for the region since the commission began its work in 1965.

“But poverty remains a significant problem,” commission spokesman Louis Segesvary said Thursday.

The commission relies on census figures to help determine which counties fall in the economic distress range, those counties that are the worst 10 percent of the nation according to unemployment, poverty and per capita indicators.

The commission serves 410 counties in 13 states, and four of Ohio’s 29 Appalachian counties — Meigs, Morgan, Pike and Vinton — are among the 78 counties considered economically distressed, he said.

Residents of Vinton County commute to other counties to the north because employment is so scarce there, said Ken Reed, Vinton County’s economic development director.

“We have a lot of working poor,” Reed said. “With rising gas prices and the price of bread and milk, it’s putting a squeeze on people.”

Fred Deel, director of the Governor’s Office of Appalachia said the region unquestionably continues to face hard economic times, although the state is working with communities to improve water and sewer lines to make the area more attractive to businesses and residents.

“Not being accessible to markets and jobs and lacking the infrastructure that is needed throughout the region — those are some of the factors that cause those areas to be first hit in times of economic distress and last to recover,” Deel said.   

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