CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The population decline of Fayette County has been gradual over the past half century with most people unaware of its dreadful impact.   

Fayette County has produced two governors, two state Senate presidents, a majority leader of the House of Delegates and a chairman of the House of Delegates Judiciary Committee. In the recent past, we have produced none of these leaders. We have only three delegate seats.

In 1953, the population of this county was 82,443 as reported in the 1950 census. In 1980 it was just under 60,000. In 2011, our estimated population had fallen to 45,629. This is a decline of 36,814 in 62 years. We still decline, losing 340 people in the last two years.

Some 40 years ago, we had approximately 14,000 students in our schools, down from more than 20,000. In the school term 2009-10, our school enrollment was 6,759.

In 2009, our seven high schools graduated only 435 students.

What happens when you have lost half of your population? You lose the good half. You lose the employed persons. You lose your youth and your future leaders. You lose the educated citizens because they have the ability to move to another area and find a job. You are left with the elderly, the sick and disabled. They do not bear children, who are our future.

The Upper Kanawha Valley has been especially hurt by the decline. You can drive from Smithers along U.S. 60 to Gauley Bridge to find a Go-Mart, two car repair garages, two taverns and two gift shops. After 9 p.m. there is little traffic. Gauley Bridge has lost three major businesses in the past year.   

Fayette County's personal income per capita is $23,930, and 23.9 percent of people live in poverty. The state per capita income is $28,206, and 17.1 percent live in poverty.

Montgomery High School graduated 106 students in 1940. It had an auditorium, stage, gymnasium, a dormitory, a cafeteria, a band room and outstanding architecture. Its gymnasium was outfitted for gymnastics with a high bar and parallel bars. It had student organizations such as gym club, Latin club, French Club, Hi-Y Club, National Honor Society, Senior Girl Reserves, Sophomore Girl Reserves, Science Club, Glee Club, a 57-piece band, Thespian Society and others. It had the first high school yearbook published in the county. Its weekly newspaper "The Siren" was awarded numerous prizes.

Montgomery was replaced by Valley High which has no auditorium, no actual stage, an inadequate gymnasium and above all, only one window. Its multipurpose room is small with confining low ceilings. Multipurpose means no purpose. There are about 300 students.

Montgomery High School was not built by the Fayette County Board of Education. It was built by the Kanawha District, which was south of the Kanawha River. It had its own Board of Education. Most citizens are unaware that our state had a district system until the Depression.

A school should have a large variety of courses. It cannot have that unless the school population is larger and varied.

People still write letters to newspapers advocating smaller, more local schools. May I remind them that we have had small, local schools for the past 50 years? They have not furnished our students an adequate education. Our students are woefully unprepared for college.

During the last bond election, a number of people said their students could not compete in larger schools. So they wanted their children to compete on a lower level. However, when they graduate they must compete with better-prepared students.

We need curricula to enable our students to compete with students that have attended schools in other counties and states. We have suffered the degradation of having our schools seized by the state Board of Education.

Montgomery must become a bedroom community for Charleston. Montgomery has sidewalks, streets, water, sewer, police and fire protection. The city must make certain that we eliminate the houses and buildings that are dilapidated and ugly. We must be sure that we remain a vibrant community recognizing that our unsightly buildings hurt all of us. We have too many shoddy fences, outbuildings and generally unkempt places. We must promote and assist our two colleges.

Our valley needs to have U.S. 60 upgraded from the Chelyan Bridge to Montgomery.

We must drastically revamp our school system using bond issues, excess property taxes and the help that only the state School Building Authority can give. Our property taxes are very low overall. We must be prepared to pay higher property taxes to help our future educational facilities.

A fund should be created to enable cities and counties to have money to eliminate unsightly, dilapidated buildings. When small cities such as Montgomery want to remove such buildings they find that they must spend great sums of money because the cost of demolition is so great that it is years before their money is returned.

Cities must be willing to levy taxes themselves. As it is they are very dependent on handouts that their delegates are able to cajole from the Legislature. If a local community is willing to levy more taxes to improve their cities, they should be allowed to do so.

We must demand that the state and university adequately fund Tech to a much greater degree so that it can gain students in spite of our population decline. We must support Bridgemont. Further, our little communities must cooperate to push our agenda with the Legislature. We need to develop our beautiful river for recreation.

We must be proud of our area and its history. Tell others how good we are.

Billheimer, a World War II veteran, is a retired lawyer, a former member of the Fayette County Board of Education and president of the Tech Foundation.