Lakewood PCS UPDATE - 3/8/06

APP: Support for Professional Career Services, a job placement firm under fire after a state audit, has poured in this week.The Lakewood Development Corp., which oversees the state-funded Job Link Program, has received more than 40 e-mails this week asking that funding to PCS be restored immediately.PCS, and the rest of the Job Link Program, lost its funding last month after a state audit questioned how PCS operates. The state then froze nearly $600,000 in Urban Enterprise Zone funding used to fund Lakewood's job placement program.Russell K. Corby, the LDC's executive director, has a meeting scheduled Friday to discuss the funding with the state Urban Enterprise Zone Authority. State officials have not commented on the audit or whether they will restore the money.In the meantime, e-mails of support sent to the LDC have painted a picture of PCS as a service agency that has placed more than 200 people in jobs over the past three years."They provide an invaluable service to the Lakewood community,'' wrote Mimi Weiss of Simple Remote, a real estate software company based on Cross Street. "Please do whatever you can to ensure that this crucial organization can continue operating and providing the integral service that it does.''