By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

CEDAR -- Nowhere in northwest Kansas was the news coming out of the 2010 census as bad as it was in Cedar, a small, well-kept Smith County community.

There, the population tumbled by almost half since the last census was taken 10 years earlier, just part of the migration tsunami that has been overtaking the Great Plains in the past 100 years.

If you can believe the numbers, that is.

Even in the city of Cedar -- population 14, according to the latest count -- there's dissenting views.

Lowell and Nancy Lydic simply can't agree with the numbers, making a count of people up and down the streets of the tiny community.

"We've been calling it 23," Lowell Lydic said. "But I've never stopped and counted."

Darlene Fuller, who serves as the acting mayor when the Lydics' brother-in-law summers in Arizona, thinks the numbers might be just about right.

Nobody, however, disagrees Cedar has been struggling, sliding into near oblivion as people get older and eventually die and children flee to larger communities.

The Lydics and Fuller all agree that Cedar the community is just a shadow of its former self.

Absent some dramatic change, and soon, Cedar won't -- and most likely can't -- last much longer.

The population of Cedar, situated alongside Kansas Highway 9, fell by slightly more than 46 percent in the 10 years prior to 2010 -- the fifth largest decline in the state.

It also is tied for the distinction of being the third smallest incorporated city in Kansas. That's needed, Fuller said, so the city can keep its lights -- streetlights, that is -- on at night.

There isn't much in Cedar these days, save for a grain elevator, a post office that continues to use old-fashioned boxes -- even the postmaster drives in each day from Phillipsburg -- and an antique shop the Lydics operate.

Throughout Smith County, the population losses have been staggering.

Lebanon, for example, lost 40 percent of its population, and now claims only 218 residents. Gaylord lost 21 percent, and Kensington lost 10 percent. Agra and Athol each lost about 12 percent.

Smith Center lost almost 14 percent of its population, and the county now has only 3,853 resident. Except for Wallace County, it had the largest decline in the region.

Even this year's popular Cedar Depot Festival Reunion will be the community's last.

"This is the last year due to my wife's health," Lowell Lydic said of his wife, Nancy.

After a quick count, the Lydics ticked off a list of people living in town, and came up with 19 residents.

"The census evidently didn't catch everyone," Lowell Lydic said.

It's the Lydics brother-in-law who serves as Cedar's mayor, passing off the gavel to Fuller while he winters in Arizona.

"I don't think it's too far off," Fuller said.

In many respects, it doesn't matter much.

There aren't many homes in Cedar -- 14 by best count.

"I've lived here off and on ... for 54 years," Fuller said.

Her husband Dale, now 94, is in a nursing home but would have been counted in the census.

"I was 80 in August," she said.

Fuller said Cedar once was a busy place, full of life and children.

"I'm the acting mayor," she said. "That's no big job in Cedar."

Cedar doesn't have any employees. Instead, residents fill in when something needs to be done, such as mowing or cleaning the streets.

"It's free gratis," she said. "We have lawnmowers and a tractor for the snow, and hope somebody can run them."

As homes empty out and start to fall apart, they've been cleaned up.

"There's been quite a few torn down in town," Lowell Lydic said.

Fuller said her husband cleaned up three of them by himself.

"The house right east of us is empty," she said. "I wish someone would move in with a bunch of kids. But I don't think they will."

There are no children in Cedar, Fuller said, and perhaps only one person younger than 60.

"Most of them are over 70," she added.

Neither the Lydics nor Fuller are apologetic about living in a small town even though there are barriers.

Going to a grocery, for example.

"It's 20 miles to the grocery in Smith Center," Fuller said. "We could go to Gaylord to get gas. Generally, if you're in Smith Center, you get gas while getting groceries."

"It's a good place to live," Lydic said. "If you like the quiet."

"I like it when you live in a house for 50-some years," Fuller said. "It feels like home."