Jefferson-Clark Regional Police Department Chief Jeff Lockard wanted U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter to clearly understand the problems of a small-town police department.

And Lockard wasn't going to waste his opportunity when Clark Mayor Douglas Bradley "volunteered" him to represent Mercer County's police chiefs during Specter's Wednesday appearance in the parking lot of the Mercer County Emergency Services Center in Mercer. The senator was in town to talk about his efforts to secure federal funding for first responders to emergencies.

"One of the things that sometimes we all forget is rural communities," Lockard told Specter as several dozen county and local political, community and emergency leaders looked on. "Rural Pennsylvania gets left behind sometimes. You look at the cities, you look at other geographical locations and you see more things happening in those areas. They get magnified because of the situation itself, but rural communities throughout the United States, including Mercer County, have the same problems and have the same needs as the larger areas."

Specter said he grew up in extremely rural Russell, Kan., a community of about 5,000 people, and said he understands the plight of small-town America.

030509