Economic Development Commission selects new executive director

With roots in the area a century deep, Origer is a life-long resident of North Judson, with some Francesville heritage on his mother’s side. The Origers have a long history of farming in the area; both a grand-uncle and uncle lived in Rich Grove Township in the past, and his family still owns land there that is leased to a local farmer.

Long before economic development was a separate profession, one of his great-grandfathers, a successful grocer and community leader, was a stockholder of the North Judson Development Company and on the boards of the Savings and Loan and American State Bank. His parents and younger brother — John, Julie, and Jared — reside in the house in which said great-grandfather raised a family decades ago; Origer now lives on the century-old family farm just northwest of North Judson.

After graduating from North Judson-San Pierre High School, Origer earned his bachelor's degree in the program of Liberal Studies from the University of Notre Dame, studying there on a Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship. After a year of working in a grocery store and doing house-rehabbing, he moved to the East Coast for two years, enrolling at the University of Maryland, College Park. Studying Community Planning at Maryland, he focused on economic development and urban design and benefitted from an interdisciplinary curriculum that helped him to understand the contexts in which planning happens and how to work with stakeholders to develop plans for a community that reflect residents’, business owners’, and elected officials’ desires and needs.

In May 2009, he earned his Master in Community Planning, met his fiancée, Sarah (whom he will marry in September), and returned to the place he loves dearest: rural Indiana. He began interning at the Kankakee-Iroquois Regional Planning Commission, in Monon, in July and became the full-time community development planner there in early 2010.

In his time at KIRPC, he has had storm-drainage projects funded in North Judson and Morocco, secured a $1MM grant for wastewater improvements in Remington, helped Pine Village to receive funding for energy-efficiency upgrades to the town’s food pantry, and assisted communities with planning for development and revitalization. Additionally, he has spearheaded the EDA-funded overhaul of the KIRPC Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, which lays out a macro-vision for local and regional economic development for eight counties, including Pulaski; prepared an extensive application for EPA funding for brownfield assessments for an eight-county coalition; and worked with officials in Jasper and Starke Counties on INDOT-funded county transportation planning. Having learned countless invaluable lessons that will serve him well, he is now leaving Monon for an office in Winamac.

A state-certified grant administrator with grant-writing experience, he comes to Pulaski County Economic Development with an academic background suited for the position, numerous contacts in the field, and, most important, a desire to help Pulaski County to remain the best possible place to raise a family, a crop, and a business.

The Pulaski County Community Development Commission (CDC), now known as the Economic Development Commission was established in December 1995 by a resolution of the county commissioners.The EDC holds to a mission to promote and improve the quality of economic development throughout Pulaski County.

EDC board members are: