Vincennes and Knox County, Indiana
Indiana's oldest city and county.

by Kathy Mayer (appeared in Indiana Business Magazine)
A NEWWABASH RIVER walk, revitalized downtown, education partnerships and expanding industries reflect the eye-on-tomorrow focus in southwest Indiana's Knox County.

Steeped in history-Knox was a county 25 years before Indiana was a state and Vincennes is Indiana's oldest city-the community enjoys a long tradition of working together that's fueling today's new thrusts.

"We've got hard-working, giving people," says Vincennes mayor Terry Mooney. "We're second in the nation for Relay for Life per capita, and our fire and police forces raised over $100,000 after 9/11. That gives you some idea of the people here."

"Tremendous community involvement is part of the DNA of this county," says Gary Gentry, president of Knox County Development Corp. "The volunteerism and support here is truly unique. Everyone says that about their community, but here involvement is the fiber of the community. People realize they have to do a lot for themselves." The economic development group, for example, has 185 paying members, a 51-member board and eight standing committees.

"They do the work of the corporation. They own the development corporation. It's truly a model for the way local economic development activity should take place," Gentry says.

As evidence of team effort, Mooney points to the river walk, an ambitious project that will extend the entire length of Vincennes and eventually connect all city parks. "It's a good quality-of-life thing. We'll hold the groundbreaking this year," he says.

That's just one example. A $30 million wastewater upgrade is complete The Vincennes urban enterprise zone is expanding its boundaries "to help people who live and work in the zone." Downtown is robust with restaurants; the 1,200-seat Pantheon vaudeville theater is being restored And studies on relocating rail traffic are well under way and soon to reach the design stage.

"Education is another major community focus," Gentry says. Knox County is home to Vincennes University-a tremendous economic growth partner and such an
asset to our community," he says, citing the university's partnership with the economic development group in Pathways, skills assessment testing (everything from math to eye-hand coordination) and a database for employers.

Another recent development is the Knox County Partnership, a collaboration of industry leaders, secondary education representatives, WorkOne and the development corporation, which received funding assistance from Lilly Endowment. Its projects include an Employment Skills Academy, offering 96 hours of training over 12 weeks on curricula requested by industry; and the job Opportunities Fair, showcasing local employers to high school seniors.

Manufacturing ranks high in Knox County, and the community embraces it, Gentry says. "Since 2001, we've seen a 17.4 percent increase in manufacturing employment. Thats rather phenomenal, I think. It's a horse we're not bailing off of."

The area's largest industrial employer is Gemtron/Schott in Vincennes, a glass fabricator employing 565. KCARC, whose 525 employees include many with developmental disabilities, operates five county locations, four in Vincennes, doing textile and automotive finishing work. Two Vincennes industries employ another 300 each: Essex Wire Co., making magnet wire, and Futaba Indiana of America, which supplies internal door frames to the nearby Princeton Toyota plant. Opened in 2002, Futaba just completed a 360,000 square-foot addition and is set to boost employment to 400 short -term. "They just keep adding," Mooney says. "They'll be up to 800 when they're done."

Vincennes' Excell USA is another rising star. It also supplies Toyota with molded plastic parts, and has a workforce of 200. Other industries include Lewis Bakeries, with 188 workers; Sodexho Management Services, a catering/food service business with 126 employees; Packaging Corp., which makes corrugated paper containers and employs 110; and Wabash Steel, which recently acquired the assets of Vincennes Steel, reopening the plant and calling back 70 workers who make road and bridge materials. Knox County is also home to Good Samaritan Hospital, a regional health-care provider employing more than 1,500.

The county hopes to soonwelcome Duke Energy's$1 billion coal gasification power plant to Edwardsport, Gentry says. "The final decision will be made in 2007. We have approved the tax increment financing district and the tax abatement. We're taking all the necessary steps to make this a doable deal. We feel pretty good about this at this stage of the game."

There's room for more employers, too. The U.S. 41 Industrial Park in Vincennes-home to CCX Trucking, Futaba, Vincennes Ford and afire station-has another 185 acres available.

"We work well together," Mooney says of the county stakeholders and their work for the future. "We all sit down and talk about what's best overall. That's how we make our decisions."

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