Ocean County leaders in government, higher education, business, and financial services, including elected officials, economic development coordinators and directors, executive directors of chambers of commerce, development authorities, and administrators in charge of infrastructure, are invited to join representatives from the state and federal government for a strategic planning and informational meeting. The meeting will be held Wednesday December 5, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., in the Lakewood Township Municipal Auditorium, 231 Third Street, Lakewood.

Steve Reinman, director of Lakewood’s Office of Economic Development and deputy municipal manager, is coordinating this meeting through the U.S. Department of Commerce (Economic Development Administration, Economic Recovery Support team for N.J.) with representatives from the EDA, SBA, and other state and federal agencies to better define the types of business support and assistance that would benefit local entities and to work with these agencies to close any gaps in the resource pool.

Topics for discussion will include business resumption problems (capital resources, technical resources, planning, etc.); finance and insurance issues, such as coverage and capital; workforce development (labor supply and demand, retraining, unemployment, temporary employment, etc.); communications, including considerations for promoting consistent communications between federal, state and local resources; and assessment (consideration for the collection and analysis of economic recovery data).

Pre-register with Reinman at 732-364-2500 Ext. 5333 or [email protected]. Time will be allotted for all registrants to be heard. Specific ideas or questions may be sent to Reinman and will be shared ahead of time with federal officials. TLS-PR.