Photo by Joseph Bell

In his second term as an Elk County Commissioner, Daniel Robert Freeburg continues to be an asset to county government.

 By Joseph Bell
Record Staff Writer

Involved in county government for 20 years, Elk County Commissioner Daniel Robert Freeburg, in his second term as a commissioner, believes in the local community.
"This is what I do and I'm proud of my track record," Freeburg said during a recent interview at his office in the Courthouse Annex along Center Street. "I want to continue good stability for the county and I have entered a new phase of my life with little kids.
"I have a great wife and two sons and thrown in with that concern is 'how are we going to keep everything viable for their generation?'"

Humble beginnings

Born May 16, 1964 in Johnstown, Freeburg is a 1982 Conemaugh Township Area High School graduate, a school in Davidsville in Somerset County.
"I went to Pitt-Johnstown and studied American History," Freeburg said. "I graduated with a Bachelors in American History and I minored in Composite Writing in 1986.
Initially, the commissioner's parents, Norman and Georgeanne (Schreiner), were from Elk County.
"My mom and dad were from Johnsonburg but they happened to move down to Johnstown because dad got a job there, so that's where I was born," Freeburg said. "I always considered that we had dual residences, even though I grew up and went to school in the Johnstown area, for my mom and dad, and the grandparents, Elk County was always home.
"So it wasn't a huge turnover to pick up and move back here permanently because we were here a lot of weekends. It was like a second home."
By comparison, Freeburg said Conemaugh Township represented a more rural part of Somerset County, a farm country with multiple mennonite farms.
"It was a very unique growing-up experience compared to here, where we're heavy manufacturing and even though we're out in rural America, we have these little urban clusters like St. Marys and Johnsonburg, and Ridgway," Freeburg said. "I think socially, this is more urban than where I grew up as a little kid because we were out in the farmland with the mennonites, so it was a great influence."
Looking back, Freeburg said his makeup as a person is reflected by his experiences and way of life growing up.

A change of pace

Becoming involved in county government was never Freeburg's original plan.
"The thing that carried me through, I mentioned my writing, and that carried me to getting me my first job with the county, and that took me places," Freeburg said. "But between college and here, I did an internship as a history major at a 35-acre outdoor museum down in Somerset, it was the Somerset Historical Center.
"It's run by the Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission so historical accuracy and the portrayal of everything it shows was paramount, so they actually needed a real historian, so I did a lot of articles there."
 The center focused on the way society developed from a farming community to a coal mining town.
"The effects of industrialization was what I was involved with," Freeburg said. "But with my college internship two years in a row, it turned into a job when I graduated but my salary was $12,000 and, even 20 years ago, that wasn't much."
While Freeburg stayed in the Johnstown area and completed his collegiate studies, his parents purchased a house in 1984 in Wilcox, a move that began the family's steady migration back into Elk County.
"Being that my roots were here (in Elk County), my mom and dad took early retirement and moved home."
Five years later, Freeburg would follow suit.

Coming home

In 1989, the first-ever Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) coordinator position was advertised for Elk County under former commissioners Joe Koch, Ed Lynch and Glenn Olson.
"The planning department then was one person and one secretary but there was this new federal program bringing money into communities so I saw it in the newspaper and, with what I thought were pretty good writing credentials, applied," Freeburg said. "I always thought I was a good writer so I applied and got the job."
During the 1990s, Freeburg said county officials set a standard as they accomplished a great deal of work throughout the area.
"I like doing what I can do for communities because the rewards of my job are amazing and the CDBG was one of the best first jobs with the county that I ever could have had because you can go into a community, give them a grant and make such a huge difference," Freeburg said. "We cleaned up sewage, raw sewage in ditches that kids were playing in during the first couple of years.
"People would be carrying water into their houses, they'd be out of water and in Brandy Camp, they'd have no water.
Through grants, Freeburg was able to assist communities with the end result being what he calls 'extremely rewarding.'
"Of course, I don't know how many years later, the planning director at the time moved on and the commissioners at that time, June Sorg, Joe Koch, and Christine Gavazzi appointed me as planning director, a position that I held through until Joe Koch retired as commissioner," Freeburg said. "As planning director, we opened up our housing rehab program and a lot of other things which allowed us to do more and more in the community."

Keep doing more

"I never had political aspirations, never, the whole time I worked here," Freeburg said as he remembers his first thoughts regarding running for commissioner.
"That led to me thinking that when (Koch) retired, with those three commissioners at the time (Gavazzi, Koch and Sorg), the county was so stable," Freeburg said.  "They had come in and really done a makeover in terms of personnel, the budget and the way the taxes were finally in line."
Not wanting to see things take a negative turn, Freeburg decided to throw his name in the hat for county commissioner.
"In 2003 when the elections started to gear up, people were coming out to run for Joe (Koch's) spot and it just hit me that 'gee, what if someone would come in and not share the same philosophies that we have?'" Freeburg said. "By that time, I had been there for 15 years or so, so I threw my name in thinking that I had a pretty good track record.
"People know I'm here and I'm dedicated to communities, whether it's St. Marys or James City, or down in Millstone Township. That's what I love to do and I'm really proud of my track record."

A stable county

Looking back, Freeburg said that the voters' ability to realize his aspirations has led to two consecutive terms as commissioner.
"I wanted to continue good stability for the county and I had entered a new phase of my life with little kids. I have a great wife and two sons and thrown in with that concern was 'how are we going to keep everything viable for their generation?'" Freeburg said. "In spite of these good times through the 1990s, we still have this outpouring of some of our best and our best educated are still leaving, even when the times were good.
"So part of my concern besides continuing to make sure we build our communities is 'what do we do to keep ourselves competitive for educated young people, entrepreneurial things, to keep ourselves competitive?'"

Wilcox

Living in his home along Clarion Street, Freeburg said he recognizes the seemingly unbelievable pride Wilcox residents have.
"There has been a turnaround in the physical look of Wilcox and in the social fabric in the past three or four years," Freeburg said. "The community pride has been amazing and I've been in this long enough to know that we can facilitate but we can't get in the ditch every time and shoulder the burden.
"What you've seen in the community that I live in is a lot of leaders willing to volunteer and dedicate themselves to a cause, and work together, and that's hard to do.
"There are some communities that get frustrated because it just doesn't seem to happen."
As a father of a nine-year-old, Benjamin, and a five-year-old, Jefferson, Freeburg said his sons have more organized activities during the summer than one can imagine.
"They have to pick which one, whether it be the summer reading program at the library or the summer fun days at the ballpark, or there's another summer school program coming up," Freeburg said. "The Presbyterian church has this bible school program and kids from all over the area, and they don't have to be presbyterian, they come to this, too.
"It's just great things going on and there wasn't even a ballpark there a few years ago."
A modest man, Freeburg credits the current Wilcox board of supervisors as dedicated individuals committed to improving the town.
"When I moved there 20 years ago, it had a real kind of inferiority complex as people would say 'it used to be a nice place, it used to look good,' and my thought was always 'well, let's change that,'" Freeburg said. "We've helped leverage some major funding into the parks, sidewalks and streetscapes, the library, but, if there was no board of supervisors, and the library board, and the recreation board, it just couldn't happen.
"There's all these little groups of volunteers and they apply for the money to make it happen. It's a neat thing to see what's going on, it's just great."

The future of Elk County

In the future, the commissioner believes retraining local workers and improving the area's powdered metal industry will help the county during the current difficult economic times.
"I believe in the dynamics of the cycle and I guess with hindsight being 20/20, I guess you could see the cycle coming and we're hopefully at the lowest part of the fall," Freeburg said. "We can only go up but we have to revamp in order to make that happen.
"I think we can do things to help and some of the big things involve retraining and facilitating our unemployed workers for viable employment that can be done right here in Elk County."
Unfortunately for the county, according to Freeburg, local people want to be trained in some area of work but eventually end up permanently leaving the area because of it.
"Young workers, and it doesn't matter what age, man or woman, they want trained in something," Freeburg said. "But people are going away from the area for training, but then they aren't coming back.
"We need to be doing that here."
Diversifying the powdered metal industry may be one of the county's keys to renewed success.
"We have a wonderful powdered metal nest, this hub here that is world renowned but we have to diversify it, obviously," Freeburg said. "It's not rocket science to know that we have to get out of the auto industry and start making it for other applications, and adjust to the markets.
"The entrepreneurial spirit here has proven this and we have to keep that investment, and keep the good, smart, hardworking people here. Part of our future has to be in the adjustment of industry as well as more and more high-tech opportunities."

The rose and thorns

Every rose has its thorns and, according to Freeburg, for Elk County, the state budget will have gross negative effects and make the area bleed.
"The state budget is an immediate problem with devastating effects, it's going to really hurt," Freeburg said. "There has to be some point where we put in all the influence and input that we can to our legislators, then they have to do their job.
"They have to make the balance, they can't just keep cutting and passing it down here because we have to keep doing our work."
And looking to the future, Freeburg is hellbent on not raising taxes.
"(State government officials) tell us to keep taking care of everything but we're just not going to have the funding to do it," Freeburg said. "If they're not willing to pay for it, then we're going to have to, but the only way we're getting money right now is through taxes and that's scary because you can't do that.
"I still remain optimistic and I think we're going to climb out of this."

Casa de Freeburg

The original part of Freeburg's house was built in 1879, a structure along Clarion Street originally built for C.W. Spettigue, who was general manager of the Wilcox Tanning & Lumber Company.
"In the 1860s the plant was built and they cut down virgin hemlock trees," Freeburg said. "They were cut down, the bark was peeled off, and they could make a chemical out of the bark called 'tannic acid,' which at that time, it was beautiful timing because people were out west mowing down all the buffalo.
"So they'd take all the hides on the trains and bring them into Wilcox, which became the largest tannery in the world. With the tannic acid, they'd make leather for shoes and other items."
Wilcox grew with it's newfound business and while the tanning industry was small through the New York area during the Civil War era, Spettigue was asked to run the tannery.
"He said 'if you build me a big fancy house, then I'll come,' so that was his house that they built for him," Freeburg said. "When I found it, it was for sale and some other people were going to tear it down for a parking lot.
"I came from a background of preserving things like that, so I took it. It's a great house."
Freeburg moved to Wilcox in 1989 when he was offered his first job with the county.
"It was this big, old wreck of a house in Wilcox," Freeburg said. "In my personal time, I started restoring this thing by myself and doing my job here."
As he remembers the late 1980s purchase, Freeburg said he can still see scattered pieces of the house strewn about on the front lawn.
"There were pieces of it laying in the yard, it was bad," Freeburg said. "There was a little building behind it down in the dirt, caved in, but I lifted it up and put a cutstone foundation under it all by myself.
"I was young and full of energy so I'd go home and work, climb ladders, just do all this crazy stuff. People would drive by and tell me 'you're crazy, you're wasting your time, burn it down,' but now it's one of the historical houses in Wilcox."

Ron & June

"I admire both (Elk County Commissioners) Ron (Beimel) and June (Sorg) for what they do," Freeburg said. "They've both set records, in a way, and June, I'm sure, is the longest running commissioner with number of terms.
"She's in it because she's dedicated, just pure dedication and Ron is an inspiration because he was in it, he got out of it, but he never lost touch."
With a renewed combination of energy and wisdom, Freeburg said the commissioner trifecta is a good dynamic.
"You have June with her years of immediate experience, then you have Ron's experience of being here, leaving, and then coming back in, so it's a good team," Freeburg said, whose own 20 years of county government experience has helped him. "Even though it's only my second term as commissioner, being involved with the county for two decades, 20 years in the public eye, we really have a great team."

The luckiest

Despite economic hardships where state and federal funding is scarce, Freeburg said he still finds himself in what he calls 'the best possible situation' right now.
"I'm just really thankful because I have a job that I like to do and I'm making a difference by helping people," Freeburg said. "I have a great family and supportive wife with two active kids.
"It's a lot of fun and we're into the baseball, soccer, and life is just great, it's really good right now. I've been blessed."