Poorest town suffers from Depression!
PEMBROKE, Illinois - November 11, 2009 - If you think the Depression has hit hard where you live, consider the little northern Illinois town where almost half the working age adults are out of work.
Imagine a community so deep in the hole, the government has fired the police force and closed two of three elementary schools. It's happened in Pembroke, a little town of some 3,000 in eastern Kankakee County near the Indiana border.
It's a town where these days, many folks don't rebuild after a fire. The charred remains just sit there.
Mayor Sam Payton puts it this way, "I'd say we're the forgotten community."
Payton says the unemployment rate is 46% and the median income is just half the statewide figure. Payton says his goal right now is to create jobs in a place where businesses don't seem to want to come, and the young people mostly want to leave.
"When they get out of high school, they're leaving because there's nowhere for them to work," said Payton.
Imagine a community so deep in the hole, the government has fired the police force and closed two of three elementary schools. It's happened in Pembroke, a little town of some 3,000 in eastern Kankakee County near the Indiana border.
It's a town where these days, many folks don't rebuild after a fire. The charred remains just sit there.
Mayor Sam Payton puts it this way, "I'd say we're the forgotten community."
Payton says the unemployment rate is 46% and the median income is just half the statewide figure. Payton says his goal right now is to create jobs in a place where businesses don't seem to want to come, and the young people mostly want to leave.
"When they get out of high school, they're leaving because there's nowhere for them to work," said Payton.
