A lack of adequate housing is at the root of an 8.8-percent drop in Dawson County’s population over an eight-year period, according to Lamesa’s chief economic development official. An article published last weekend by USA Today’s 24/7 Wall St. listed Dawson County as having the sharpest drop in population of any county in Texas based on U.S. Census Bureau figures from April 2010 through July 2018. During that period, the article states, Dawson County’s population fell from 13,833 to 12,619. The publication listed the “fastest shrinking” county in each state. In four states, however – Delaware, Hawaii, South Dakota and Washington – no ...