Obama to address nation from a community recovery missed

SCHNECKSVILLE, Pa. - If there's an economic recovery going on, someone forgot to tell the folks at the Schnecksville Diner.

The restaurant across the street from Lehigh Carbon Community College, where President Obama is to talk about the economy today, was filled earlier this week with people who say they aren't recovering at quite the same rate as, say, Bank of America.

So if the president wants to know how one rural community is faring, he should stop in the diner for its famous Dutch omelet, made with locally produced Scrapple, and an earful from customers.

Young or old, working or unemployed, Republican or Democrat, all would tell him the same thing: We need more jobs.

"The government gave us a false sense of security that things were getting better," said Kim Buskirk, who works at a roofing and siding plant that is down to 18 employees from a high of 110. "This country needs jobs. The working class need jobs."

Buskirk, 47, and a father of two from Kunkletown, Monroe County, worries that he could be the next out the door, any day now.

"That's corporate America. There are no guarantees you're going to have a job," he said, digging into his own Dutch omelet.

In Schnecksville, a 1.3-square-mile speck of farmland and housing developments about 10 miles northwest of Allentown, there aren't too many jobs in the best of times. Entering town, there's a vacant used-car lot and a string of small businesses along Route 309.

Adding to people's burdens, the local utility, PPL Corp., has announced it will increase electric rates 30 percent next month.

Buskirk's brother-in-law, Anthony Mitros, is a retiree who had his own tale of woe. After selling his Easton restaurant in 2004, he lost all his money in the stock market crash.

Mitros, 73, who came here from Greece 60 years ago, said America isn't like it used to be.

"There have always been good times and bad, but nothing like today," he said. "Promises are made, but not for the people who built this country."

Though the government bailed out mortgage companies and banks, "go try to borrow money from the banks. You can't get it," he said.

He might have to go back to work, "but I think I'm going to ask the government to take care of me this time," he said with a smile.

Michele Cocchiaro, 35, a veterinary assistant married to a lawyer, said that she isn't hurting, but that she knows a lot of people who are unemployed and struggling.

"Nothing's changed," she said. The government doesn't need to spend the rest of the $787 billion stimulus money, "because it's not working."

Instead, the government should give people a tax rebate or create incentives for small businesses to start hiring.

"This money that they're spending isn't stimulating anything," she said.

The Congressional Budget Office would disagree, announcing yesterday that the money had created between 600,000 and 1,600,000 jobs, lowering overall unemployment by 0.3 to 0.9 of a percentage point.

In the Lehigh Valley area, the unemployment rate in October was 9.8 percent, with 26,568 people filing unemployment claims, compared with 25,949 in 2008, according to a jobs report from the state Department of Labor and Industry.

Construction jobs were down, as were those in leisure and hospitality. Retail jobs were up by 100, but that was much lower than the expected 500 for this time of year.

The biggest growth was in education and health services, which added 1,400 jobs as schools hired staff at the beginning of the school year.

Curtis Schneck, a homebuilder and descendant of Adam Schneck, who founded the community in 1756, said his business took a 60 percent hit during the recession.

"This is the worst ever in 45 years. But we're hanging in there," he said.

Schneck said the government needs to help small business owners like himself.

"There's no industry left in this country that amounts to anything. The major companies are going overseas because of the cost to produce things here," he said. "We've got to stop that. We've got to worry about the small business guy."

Another area business owner, Hubert Sell, said that milk sales at his Crystal Spring dairy farm and retail store were down by 20 percent and that he might have to reduce the size of his herd.

"Farmers are really falling behind," he said.

But he was encouraged by a slight uptick over Thanksgiving and said the government is on the right track.

"I have faith," he said. The president "has one heck of a job ahead of him. I think he's really got his heart into it and he is really working at it. I don't know if he even sleeps at night."

At Holiday Hair, where commissions are as limp as over-conditioned hair, stylist Patti Herman also said Obama was doing a good job, even though her own electrician son was out of work for seven months and took a job at a lower pay.

"He came into a bad situation and is trying the best he can," she said of the president while waiting for a customer to walk into the empty salon on Route 309.

People need jobs, not handouts, she said.

"They're giving up," she said of the unemployed.

And with the PPL rate hike, "people are scared," said Herman, who works for the local Democratic Party.

At Lehigh Carbon, several students gathered around a table advertising jobs selling high-priced cutlery. They said it was the best they could get, since college graduates and retirees are taking entry-level positions.

Brian Wiersch, 18, who has been selling knives for two months and has made enough to pay his tuition, was also lucky enough to score a ticket to the Obama event.

And he knows exactly what he would say to the president given a chance:

"This is an American-made product that is helping the American economy," Wiersch said of his knives. "And 400 of the six-piece flatware sets would be great for the next state dinner."