Ulster Comptroller Highlights Gaps Facing County’s Rural Communities

One article sparked a local conversation about how communities across Ulster County are classified and whether some rural areas are being left with less support than surrounding metro areas.

The issue was recently flagged by Ulster County Comptroller March Gallagher, who referenced a Daily Yonder article about what it called a “categorization conundrum” across the country. In Ulster County, Gallagher pointed to rural-style shortages in medical care and broadband access. While broadband service is improving in some of the county’s dead zones without cellphone service, she said it remains difficult to attract doctors to rural areas compared with metro areas.

One term Gallagher referenced in a social media post, “exurban,” describes places that fall between rural and urban definitions and can be poorly served by either classification. Gallagher explains that can leave rural communities out of funding opportunities tied to those classifications.

She pointed to places such as Shandaken, Hardenburgh and other rural parts of the county, where residents face spotty internet and cellphone service, limited public transit and long drives for health care. Gallagher said she does not think changing the county’s definitions would solve the problem, but she is open to exploring programs that could better support rural areas.

“Change is scary, research needs to be done,” Gallagher said. “We can’t just change these definitions without really thinking about how it impacts every other designated jurisdiction. So if we’re going to change it, we really have to think about whether this is going to hurt rural communities that are truly rural.”