RIDGWAY – The 40th annual meeting of the North Central Regional
Planning and Development Commission was held Friday night, and
Micron Research Corp. was awarded as manufacturer of the year.

Awards were given out to honor the manufacturer of the year,
Micron Research Corp.; outstanding workforce partner of the year,
Patricia Stubber; chairman of the year, John Torok; and a special
recognition to McKean County’s Robert Esch for all his work during
the search for a new executive director.

Eric Bridges took over the reigns as executive director of the
agency Monday after being named to the post at the beginning of
September.

Micron Research Corporation began production in 2001 with six
employees and has grown to 16 employees. Their annual sales of fine
graphite blocks have risen from $550,000 in 2002 to $2,200,000 in
2005. They are increasing their market by expanding their current
facility and accessing foreign markets, including Singapore,
Thailand, Vietnam, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, China and Germany.
They have used most of the programs offered by NCRPDC, from loans
to job training, export assistance, procurement assistance programs
and the Keystone Opportunity Zone.

Stubber is the executive director of the Northwest Pennsylvania
Area Health Education Center. She has been actively involved with
the North Central Workforce Investment Board’s Health Care
Consortium since it began meeting in Nov. 2003.

Torok has been the chairman of the executive board for the past
two years and plans to step down after the year is up. He told the
staff and employees of North Central, “you want to go forward;
tonight’s the night you go forward. You have a new executive
director that has an opportunity to help you get there.”

He said how much he’s enjoyed working with the board and the
employees over the past two years. “When we walk through this
world, we have several decisions to make,” Torok said. “Now the
best we can do is leave it a better place for those closest to us
and around us.”