By Joseph Bell

During yesterday morning's Elk County board of commissioner's meeting, elected officials immersed themselves in a short discussion regarding the current economy and its local impact.

"The commissioners sent out a memo last week along with the chief clerk in response to the economic times that we're going through with the unemployment rate and so on," said Elk County Commissioner Daniel R. Freeburg. "The one thing that we are doing which was not in the memo is we're diligently working to get the PMI (Precision Manufacturing Institute) facility, former ITEC (building), up and running.

"We think it's critical that we get training in place for our displaced workers and commissioners can't create jobs but we can help with the environment for job creation."

According to Freeburg, that's a key priority for the commissioners right now while working through the North Central Regional Planning & Development office.

"As far as the memo that I've referenced, we wanted to make clear to all department heads that spending is really a critical issue right now and we're asking for only the most necessary expenditures," Freeburg said. "That pertains also to travel and things like that later on in the year.

"We're very aware of the state of the economy and we've been talking to industry and there is light at the end of the tunnel for some of them hopefully and thankfully with some orders coming in, but probably nationwide, we'll probably keep in a slide for a little while."

To boost the economy on a local level, Elk County Commissioner/Chairperson June H. Sorg said the elected officials have been hearing about stimulus dollars that are coming in.

"We've been working very closely with our planning department and North Central to bring in as many of those dollars here into our area to not only help with education and employment but with businesses and infrastructure that is needed," Sorg said.

According to the commissioners, Elk County will benefit more from working closely with the North Central office.

"Last week, (chief clerk) Peg (Aharrah) and I were on the phone with Senator (Robert P.) Casey (Jr.) and his staff and went over most of the stimulus package and how it's going to affect Pennsylvania," said Elk County Commissioner Ronald T. Beimel. "One thing that he did say for our area is to work very closely with the regional development commission because, as a region, we can access a lot of the stimulus money that we wouldn't get singly. That was a real key there."