Work Force America

I recently put a letter in Highlands Today requesting some help for a project that would put people to work. Let me tell you the response I got. I sent a letter to Governor Crist asking for his support. To my surprise the phone rang at work. It was one of his aides that called me and said if I needed any help to call him. Someone else also called to volunteer their time for writing grants. So that's two good things we got.

The reason I said "we" is because this is a community effort. There's only two reasons why this project won't work: The first is poor management and I won't let that happen. The second is the people of Highlands County. Are you up to it? I believe you are as there are a lot of good people here.

Let's go to the news this week. Our governor said there is 3 percent job growth. I wonder how many that is out of 16 million people out of work. Then we have health care. It would be nice to have insurance, but if you can't afford it because you don't have a job, then it seems they did that a little backwards, like putting the cart before the horse. Let's get people back to work first.

This past week I spoke to Cheryl Sharp at Heartland Workforce. She is the business operations director and is waiting for the program to get started. I left a message for Bill McKown, certified business development center, and am still waiting for his call.

What will Work Force America do? It will create jobs, bring new businesses to the area and help restructure failing businesses. Also, it will be going green, which will create new jobs. There's a lot of people who said that once it was set up they would get on board. I still need funding to get the program set up, so if there is anybody out there willing to take a chance please call me if interested.

Steven Lucchesi
Lake Placid