When will the economic boom reach rural America, eastern Kentucky?

Let's get this out front from the start. I am very happy that Donald Trump, not Hillary Clinton, won the 2016 presidential election. She did not have the solutions to revive the moribund economy the country experienced during Barack Obama's two terms. Trump's record on economic issues shows that he was, indeed, the correct choice to move our country forward.

Similarly, I'm glad that Kentuckians elected Matt Bevin as their governor in 2015, instead of Jack Conway. Bevin's accomplishments in job creation and business expansion are unquestionable. It's a safe bet that the state will move backwards in those areas the next four years because voters chose not to re-elect Bevin and picked Andy Beshear instead.

On a national and statewide basis, things look great. Every bit of economic news that comes out is good. National unemployment is at an astoundingly low 3.5 percent. The stock market has been on a tear, consistently setting new high levels. Wages are increasing. Everything seems rosy. Happy days are here again.

But those of us far from the big cities, urban centers, and four-lane highways see this only on the news. We're not seeing it in our daily lives, in our hometowns.

If a rising tide lifts all boats, why are our vessels still taking on water? Why do the "haves" continue to do well, while the "have-nots" keep on looking for this success that's happening all around us? When is this economic boom that's taking place everywhere else going to reach us?

We're told that there are more open jobs than workers to fill them, but our unemployment rates remain high, and people have trouble finding suitable employment. When businesses locate or expand in Kentucky, they do so in communities where unemployment is low instead of those places where people are craving possibilities close to home.

Wages may be increasing elsewhere, but they're stagnant in small towns, where people are increasingly having trouble making ends meet.

A bull market makes good headlines, but means nothing to those who don't have investments or retirement accounts.

Why are the opportunities that are so freely flowing to prospering communities passing the struggling ones by?

Eastern Kentucky has its challenges, but it has resources that should be attractive to any employer. Chief among them is an ample available workforce of people who are looking for jobs, or looking for better opportunities. There are plenty of available locations for new businesses, from abandoned storefronts to empty industrial buildings to reclaimed strip mining sites. Water and electricity are available just about anywhere a new venture would want to locate.

And what of those challenges? Highway access, broadband internet availability, and cellphone service are the three biggest hurdles. These are areas where the government could step in to help.

Much of this region is plagued by inaccessibility. Modern routes like the Mountain Parkway, Hal Rogers Parkway, US 23, KY 80, and US 25E have opened up large swaths of the mountains, but trying to get between some of our county seats remains an adventure. Anyone driven from Hazard or Hyden to Harlan lately? Beattyville or Booneville to Jackson? McKee to Manchester?

It's obvious where the state needs to invest its highway construction dollars to improve access and promote economic development, but there seems to be a policy in place to give prosperous areas more at the expense of the places that really need the help. For years, two exits on I-75 served the Toyota plant at Georgetown. Now, there's a third interchange there. Bullitt County, south of Louisville on I-65, already has five exits, and a sixth one is being built on a rushed schedule. Bowling Green recently got a new exit from I-65, and Glasgow has two new exits on the Cumberland Parkway. Elizabethtown got a new exit for the Western Kentucky Parkway.

Yet the state made major cutbacks on its long-promised reconstruction of KY 30 between Owsley and Jackson counties. The project was scaled back to eliminate passing lanes on the new section under construction between Travellers Rest and Tyner. That means there will be no truck lanes whatsover on the 20-mile stretch between Levi and US 421. The extension of that route into Lee County continues to be pushed back, and the project to link that segment to the existing route north of Beattyville has disappeared from the state's road plan.

AT&T's neglect of both broadband internet and cellphone service in the counties it serves borders on the criminal. No company is going to want to locate in an area where it can't communicate with the rest of the world. Although they're making progress on both fronts, they still lag far behind what this area needs to be competitive.

When we see dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of new jobs being announced for places like Louisville and the northern Kentucky/greater Cincinnati area, we get frustrated because the state is making investments in those prosperous places instead of the struggling small communities and rural counties.

During the recent gubernatorial campaign, Beshear touched on this. He said that the Bevin administration had concentrated on the urban areas, while he was going to bring job opportunities to the entire state. When pressed on this, he mentioned agriculture. That's not going to work in the mountains, where our terrain isn't suitable for farming.

Too many of our residents are already having to commute significant distances for jobs. This costs them time and money. It should be easier for folks to be able to work near their homes, especially if there are plenty of people seeking work in those communities.