A proposed project by Plastikon Industries to locate a manufacturing plant in Lawrence’s East Hills Business Park is exciting on multiple levels.

Foremost, the plant is expected to employ about 125 people over the next three years, with average salaries near $47,000 per year.

In addition, the California-based company — which will manufacture plastic medical vials — says most of the employees will be new hires rather than transfers from outside the area.

With such good news, it is easy to overlook the new ways Lawrence and Douglas County commissioners have come together to land this project. The city and the county have agreed to jointly fund a work-force training grant of about $63,000 to be paid to the company over the next five years.

The dollar amount is relatively small. The sentiment, however, is significant.

For too long, economic development efforts in Lawrence have not received a double-barreled approach. It is important — actually, critical — for Douglas County government leaders to become more active in helping land jobs in Lawrence and any other location in the county. As the elected leaders that represent every inch of Douglas County, they should give top priority to spurring new jobs because economic development in any part of the county benefits us all.

There have been encouraging signs beyond Plastikon. The city and the county have both made major investments in the new bioscience incubator on Kansas University’s West Campus and in a related facility near Bob Billings Parkway and Wakarusa Drive. The county also showed a commitment to economic development in its most-recently adopted budget, and the county has long been a funder of the economic development program run by the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.

We hope this new level of active partnership is a sign of more initiatives to come. For in these uncertain economic times, there are some certainties: We need jobs, and we’ll need a total team effort to land them.