A top official in Surry says local joblessness has reached the point where something major needs to be done.

“We are at a crisis with our unemployed people,” Craig Hunter, the chairman of the county board of commissioners, said at a Thursday meeting of the City-County Liaison Committee.

“I don’t know what to do,” Hunter added during the meeting of the group made up of Mount Airy and Surry officials who pursue joint projects.

The catalyst for the county board chairman’s remarks was the latest jobless rate for Surry, which stood at 12.5 percent at the end of October — the most recent month for which figures are available. That exceeds the level of any other county in the Triad.

Hunter also said he believes the rate of “under-employed” people, those who are working for wages that aren’t allowing them to make ends meet, might be in the 20-percent range.

In response, Hunter said he and other county officials have decided to establish a special group aimed strictly at tackling the problem of putting local residents back to work. “We are going to try to form a team,” he said.

“One of the first orders of business is to go and sit down with the governor,” said Hunter, who is hoping to be accompanied by the mayors of Surry’s four municipalities. The goal of that trip to Raleigh is to request any possible assistance that would remedy the county’s depressed state.

Hunter said he normally does not like to seek such government assistance, “but I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know if it will be worth a hill of beans,” he said of the effort.

Mount Airy officials present at Thursday’s meeting expressed support for the plan.

Todd Harris, a city commissioner, commented that one of the traits likely keeping local residents afloat is a demonstrated ability to adapt to tough times. “We’re lucky that we have among our populace a history of frugality,” Harris said.

Hunter, though, said he fears the county is approaching a level where that might not help anymore.

Along with supporting the special team, Harris suggested that a low-cost public transportation program allowing Surry residents access to Winston-Salem, an effort he said has done a fantastic job, be enhanced to provide even more opportunities for local citizens. Harris was referring to PART (the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation), which provides bus, van and carpooling opportunities.

The Mount Airy commissioner said he does not want to detract from local job-recruitment efforts. But he explained that the seven-year-old PART program represents a way for Surry residents to take advantage of employment opportunities in the larger city without paying to drive back and forth.

City Manager Don Brookshire also said since the county unemployment rate now seems entrenched above the 12 percent level, Surry might qualify for assistance through the Appalachian Regional Commission which it didn’t before.

The ARC was established by Congress years ago to foster economic development in the depressed region of Appalachia.

Funding from the commission could aid in getting local sites ready for industry and make this area more attractive for development, Brookshire said.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.