Q&A with Dubois Strong Executive Director Colten Pipenger
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
In September, Colten Pipenger became executive director of Dubois Strong Economic Development Corp. The organization is a public-private partnership that maximizes community resources and assets to foster economic growth in Dubois County.
Pipenger spoke with Inside INdiana Business about Dubois Strong’s mission, his goals as executive director and the next Dubois County Entrepreneurs and Innovators event, which wraps up the Foundations of Business Series.
Dubois Strong recently added “Economic Development Corp.” to its name. Why?
A lot of that is what we’ll see long term from Dubois Strong. As an organization, it’s a little bit of those kind of refreshments and refinements to solidify who we are and what we do for our community.
Before, we had a tagline that was called, “Let’s talk about success.” But that transition and that solidification to our roots and what our mission is and what our vision is for the county helps put us in that niche place of economic and community development.
What’s the purpose of this organization, and how long has it been around?
The organization has been around since 2006. It exists as the local economic development organization for Dubois County. We’re partnering with cities and towns and the county to drive economic priorities.
A lot of times, economic development nowadays constitutes a lot of community development as well. So everything from site selection, business retention and expansion efforts all the way down to parks, trails, events and festivals and how we get people to come visit our county. But then also the second half of that is converting them into residents of our county.
What was your background before joining Dubois Strong?
I was at the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership. I was a program manager. I had the pleasure of leading READI 1.0 after the application process. I ended up taking on all 23 READI 1.0 projects and then worked on the READI 2.0 proposal. I was able to secure that maximum award of $45 million for the Evansville region and led it through the first project with The Dominion [development]. I also did some work with downtown and the regional riverfront plan.
Describe your role as executive director.
With Dubois Strong, I get to lead the economic development for the county. So it’s a change of pace from project-based to looking holistically at what are the needs of the county, what are the needs of the community and what do we need to do to continue to see some growth in our communities?
If you’ve been through Jasper recently or Huntingburg, they’re making tremendous strides. And Ferdinand is starting up some programming with the Office of Community and Rural Affairs. There have been a lot of community development initiatives, and you’ll continue to see that.
I get to look through things like housing, childcare, water, sewer and power, to be able to expand on available homes and affordable homes and our housing stock, but also look at key industry partners and businesses and how we can help those businesses grow.
Dubois County is very fortunate and a little bit unique to have the number of headquarters we have in the county. It’s an exciting time to be able to see how we can continue to move forward and make this a great place to live.
What are your short-term goals in this role?
A lot of the short term goals for Dubois Strong are built around that refinement of what we do and some of the programs and offerings and services that we have here. By the end of the year, we’ll push out a very public view of this organization. How do we add value to the everyday citizen? How do we add value to our business partners and everybody in between there? And defining that.
What are your long-term goals as executive director?
Building those trusted partnerships. Looking at things like our housing growth and population growth, looking at things like access to affordable childcare, quality childcare and seeing Dubois County become the region for these activities.
We want to be a county that excels in not only the business community but also how do we start connecting our towns like Birdseye and Haysville to more parks and amenities? And how do we grow that population to make this an inviting place to live and to work? Across the nation, people get to choose where they live, and they don’t necessarily always go where there’s work. Remote work is so prevalent.
We have things like the city of Jasper was the first GigaCity. It’s pushing that message that you can come work here and have fast internet, great cell service and all these great parks and amenities and this quality of place and a safe environment for you and your family to live and work, whether remotely or at one of our fabulous business partners in our county. The more trust and relationships we build, the more we can showcase that.
I enjoy the work that the [Indiana Economic Development Corp.] has done with the For the Bold [branding] and stepping out of our shell a little bit and not being so reserved. But it started to tell that story of where we provide value and how we can make this place and continue to make this place the place to be in Indiana.
What are the challenges of fostering economic growth in Dubois County?
We face a lot of the same challenges that the rest of the state sees. Indiana, as a state overall, performs well in the business environment and is making great strides in the community development and the quality of place. But some of those struggles, again, we go back to housing and childcare—and the affordability of those things.
There are a lot of great methods and models, and there are a lot of great people doing work in our community to address these issues. I want to be the project leader for these things as well, for how we attack housing shortages, affordability and availability. And how we attack issues with childcare and growth infrastructure and be proactive in our approach to current and future businesses but also current and future residents.
What events are on Dubois Strong’s calendar this fall?
Our next event is for Dubois County Entrepreneurs and Innovators. It’s a group of people that gather to share stories and network with one another. It’s October 22. We’ll have available spaces to rent and lease and the ability to connect with realtors or property owners and tour the spaces that people see fit [for their businesses].
We’re trying to get those people in a central location and partner with our cities and towns to showcase these great places and start doing some infill development in available places to grow a business here. We will end the night on the square in Jasper with a bookstore and coffee shop owner telling his story of how he got to where he’s at now.
Why should someone start a new business or relocate a company in Dubois County?
This is a unique county. When you look around the rest of the state, you don’t have the mixture in this area that we’re so grateful to have. You look at the quality of place investments, and that’s what draws people to this area. You come visit once, it makes you want to come visit a second time and a third time and become a resident.
We have access to a regional airport that can handle pretty much any aircraft type to be able to fly in and out. We have proximity to our major hub cities like Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville and even Chicago that are relatively close. You have access to nearly half the U.S.’s population within a day’s drive.
Dubois County is also prideful. People take pride in their yards, work, schools and families. You don’t see that everywhere across the state, and you don’t see that across the U.S. as much either. When you look specifically at our county, cities and towns, you can feel a different kind of energy.
I invite people to drive through and spend a day on 4th St. in Huntingburg or on the square in Jasper or drive through Ferdinand or get ice cream at the Windmill Chill in Holland. There are all these little things that make a difference in our community that not every small town, smaller population county has. We’re becoming the economic hub for this middle of southwest Indiana area.