Pa. county having trouble collecting Sept. 11 bills from United SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) =97 Already facing a budget crunch, officials in Somerset= =20 County say they are having trouble collecting Sept. 11-related=20 reimbursements from bankrupt United Airlines. The county commissioners said= =20 repeated requests to the airline for repayment of $64,000 in crash-related= =20 costs have gone unanswered. "It's fallen on deaf ears," Commissioner Brad=20 Cober told The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown, Pa. "They don't acknowledge=20 that they owe us anything." The county claims it paid for a wide variety of= =20 supplies and other expenses in the weeks following the crash of United=20 Flight 93 near Shanksville, including costs related to heavy machinery and= =20 phone service. United, based in Chicago, has already spent more than=20 $850,000 reclaiming and monitoring the site. Company spokesman Joe Hopkins= =20 said he did not know if the county's claim had been rejected, and if so,=20 why. The claim may also be under review by the airline's insurer, he said.= =20 United Airlines made the largest bankruptcy filing in aviation history on=20 Dec. 9, saying it was the only way to keep the world's No. 2 airline flying= =20 after two years of heavy losses. With a tight budget for 2003 and a hiring freeze already in effect, county= =20 officials have now turned to the state for help. The commissioners said they paid the expenses without hesitation as the=20 country mourned the attack victims, including the 40 passengers and crew=20 who died aboard Flight 93. But in the days following the wreck, county=20 officials said they met quietly with then-Gov. Tom Ridge, who they say told= =20 them the state would make sure the county received the financial help it=20 needed. "We talked about these expenses," Cober said. "We didn't know how high they= =20 were going to get." Ridge has since moved on to head the new Department of= =20 Homeland Security. County officials are now making a last-ditch plea to the= =20 current administration, hoping they do not have to begin anew with the=20 administration of Gov.-elect Ed Rendell. "I'm confident that we will be=20 reimbursed," said Commissioner Pamela Tokar-Ickes. County officials said=20 they expect to find out within 10 days whether they will be reimbursed.=20 "I'm thinking that this is just going slowly, and it will be taken care of= =20 in the long run," Cober said. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) : escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.hilofoodstores.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************