The Pulaski County Community Development Commission is sponsoring an Economic Summit Thursday, June 28 at 6:30 p.m. ET at the Medaryville Lions Club.
CDC Executive Director Nathan Origer explained the summit will include a presentation and discussion regarding business life in Pulaski County.
“We’re going to have our State of the County Economy Address and a panel of entrepreneurs will talk about what it’s like to start to run a business in Pulaski County, where they’ve succeeded in their market, where the county or local government has been an aid or hindrance, and their vision of the county’s economy in their own business future,” Origer explained.
Origer says the county’s economy is suffering, but they’re doing fairly well in light of the recession.
“We’re all suffering from this prolonged recession, but Pulaski County has weathered it pretty well because we are a well-diversified and entrepreneurial county, and a county with a fairly small population,” said Origer. “We have seen unemployment rates that have been some of the best in the state. I think right now we have the 10th best of all 92 counties and we’re seeing some growth from a couple of our bigger employers.”
The economic picture in Pulaski County looks promising.
“We’re a very heavily-agricultural county and with the drought conditions as they are, we have to be a little more realistic about what’s going to happen in the future, but right now our ag-based economy and our manufacturing economy are both healthy,” Origer explained.
With that, Origer notes that since it is a county for entrepreneurs, it is a little difficult to attract outside investments.
“Recognizing that and recognizing the history of entrepreneurial growth in this county, we’re really looking at that. We’ve done a series of events this spring trying to connect small businesses and start up entrepreneurs with resources from the state level and the local level to help them grow their business, start their business and to figure out if they should start their business. We’re going to continue that with this summit and hopefully later this year,” Origer said.
All of that and more will be discussed during tomorrow’s economic summit.
