Ord Graduate Finds Opportunities Back Home

A thriving community of more than 2,000 people in the Nebraska Sandhills, Ord has seen its ups and downs throughout the years. But recently the town has been on an upswing. With the growth of new businesses and facilities, several people who grew up here have moved back, including Matt Eppenbach.

Eppenbach was your typical rural farm boy. He worked on a cattle ranch north of Ord during high school and grew to love the land. "I learned my love of cattle at a young age helping my dad and grandpa with their cattle herds, from birth all the way through until the cattle went to market," he said. "I now own my own herd of cows."

Eppenbach's passion for rural life motivated his move back to his hometown. He said he had always hoped that one day he would return to Ord--he just needed the opportunity to do so. "I always kind of knew that one day I wanted to move back," Eppenbach said. "I like the area a lot. I like the agricultural aspect, and it's a good place to raise kids."

After graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with an accounting degree in 2006, he married his wife, Janet. They moved to her hometown of Omaha and lived there for almost three years. In June 2009, he got the opportunity he had been looking for: A job offer from an accounting firm back home.

Eppenbach has known his current boss since he was in high school, so accepting the job was not a tough call. His wife has also adjusted well to the area, working as a graphic designer for Valley County Hospital, one of the local institutions that is expanding.

Ord's prospects have been improving since the community affiliated with HomeTown Competitiveness, or HTC, a community revitalization program sponsored by the Heartland Center for Leadership Development, the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and the Nebraska Community Foundation. HTC has been implemented in communities across the country since it was piloted in Ord in 2002. Many of these communities have experienced new successes when applying the HTC strategy of Engaging Youth and Young People, Expanding Community Philanthropy, Energizing Entrepreneurship, and Building Local Leadership.

Since implementing HTC, Ord has seen the creation of 73 new businesses, 10 business expansions, over 330 new jobs and $90 million in new investment. Per capita income is growing at more than twice the state average, and people like Eppenbach have helped curb the trend of out-migration: Ord's population is increasing for the first time since 1930.

Eppenbach is proud of his community, and hopes to take advantage of everything it has to offer.

"Ord is a good, progressive town," Eppenbach said. "The community boards get new things going and are constantly looking into the future."

Above all, Eppenbach said, it is the people of Ord who make it such a great place to live.

"Everybody has treated me with respect since I've moved back," Eppenbach said. "The people are all willing to work to keep Ord alive. They have everybody else's interests at heart."