After seven long months of limbo, the Rush County Economic and Development Corporation finally has a new leader.

Brad Buening of Decatur County will begin the position at the end of this month.

Buening is a 1991 graduate of Ball State University and holds two bachelor’s degrees; one in Environmental Design and one in Urban and City Planning.

Buening comes into the position from Ripley County, where he has served as the Economic Development Director for the past year. Prior to this he worked for Indiana Farm Bureau Inc. as the Land Use Specialist.

Buening also has a planning and zoning background for the State of Indiana, which has been utilized for the past 16 years. He dealt with city and county local governments in that area. Most recently, he worked with Rush County on its Model Zoning ordinance which is being used as a guide in communities all over the state and will be unveiled in January.

Buening was a GIS speaker at a three-state conference in Indianapolis and also spoke at a national convention in Chicago. He was a previous board member of the Indiana GIS Initiative, specifically sitting on the Standards and Recommendation Committee and chairing the Legislative Committee.

In Wells County, Buening served locally on an Economic Development Committee as well as regionally on the Advisory Board for Region Three in Northeast Indiana for the Indiana Department of Commerce.

“Rush County is positioned to benefit from the vigorous activity in Southeast Indiana,” Buening said. “Whether it be in the form of quality housing, retail business or vital industry to support our tax base, growth will occur.”

“I’m very excited,” Buening said. “I’ve become familiar with the area and the people here in local government, and a lot of the relationships I’ve built in the past year working on the model zoning as well as seeing the infrastructure and land opportunities available for clients and for growth helped me to make my decision.”

Buening and his wife currently live in Decatur County, where his children attend North Decatur Schools.

“From a qualifications standpoint, he was exactly what we were looking for,” Tim Yazel, President of the ECDC Executive Board said. “When the board met, we had to decide just what we were looking for in a director. We feel that the industrial park and its infrastructure are key to development here, and Brad has a background in urban planning, a degree in zoning and planning and we felt like he would be an excellent fit for that. A lot of different organizations and groups have worked with him; the housing committee has worked with Brad on model zoning, the ag roundtable worked with him, commissioners, Mayor Bridges--and they all worked well with him. He was also able to unite the city and county on the model zoning, which was a huge step in the right direction, in my opinion.”

Buening feels that Rush County is in line for opportunities of development from Honda and plans to build on that advantage.

“With what I’m hearing from the state with Honda, which will be the epicenter for this region, a lot of the suppliers now are looking for places to settle to be near that epicenter, and Rush County is right in the mix for that,’ Buening said.

Buening has worked on several shovel-ready sites in Ripley County, as well as in the area of downtown development in one of the incorporated cities in that county.

“I look forward to working with the local governments and pulling the strengths of the community together and moving forward in a positive direction,” Buening said.