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Economic Development News for Knox County and Vincennes, Indiana
Note:The KCDC would like to acknowledge the Vincennes Sun Commercial, Indiana Economic Digest and the Evansville Courier and Press for some of the news stories and photographs which appear below. We appreciate their ongoing coverage of events which emphasize the growth of Knox County and it's economic development efforts.
11/27/06 Good Samaritan Hospital plans new cancer center
10/09/06 Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana, Inc. (TMMI) Receives EPA Award
10/06/06 Vincennes University Offers Accelerated Associates Degree Program
7/13/06 Hard work pays off for Employment Skills Academy grad
6/1/06 Vincennes University to Build Technology Center
4/28/06 Vectren to open two new underground coal mines near Vincennes
3/10/06 Local impact of Toyota: "Dramatic"
3/2/06 Wabash Steel LTD opened the doors for business on March 2, 2006
2/20/06 Vincennes University students swept the top three places in national technology contest.
For past news stories (prior to 2006) of Economic Development in Knox County and Vincennes, Indiana, visit our archives.
Good Samaritan Hospital plans new cancer center
Good Samaritan Hospital (GSH) is building a new $9-million cancer care center. The 25,000 square-foot facility will be built onto the existing Diagnostic Treatment Center on the southeast side of the hospital. Hospital officials hope to have it open by the spring of 2008.
The center will expand the radiation therapy area that features the hospital’s state-of-the-art linear accelerator, which administers radiation to cancer patients. It will also include 12 infusion suites for chemotherapy treatments.
Good Samaritan is projected to treat more than 30,000 patients in the emergency room this year.
Two additional trauma rooms will be added, increasing the number of trauma rooms to 20. The waiting room, triage and registration areas will be remodeled, with the goal of enhancing privacy for patients and further streamlining registration and triage.
Also as part of the construction, the hospital’s information technology center will be expanded.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana, Inc. (TMMI) Receives EPA Award
Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana, Inc. (TMMI) in Princeton and 2 other US Toyota plants have been recognized by the US Environmental Protection Agency with an ENERGY STAR Plant Award for their commitment and leadership in protecting our environment through energy efficiency.
The plants satisfied the EPA's Energy Performance Indicators (EPI) score, including lighting levels and environmental compliance criteria. This is the first time ever that the US EPA has awarded the ENERGY STAR Plant Award.
Some of the keys to earning the award include:
* Installing energy efficient fluorescent lamps in all areas of the three plants
* Minimize operational time of the paint shops by ten percent
* Eliminate certain sections of the paint operations to reduce energy use by five percent
TMMI produces the Sequoia, Sienna and Tundra.
Vincennes University Offers Accelerated Associates Degree Program
Persons needing to improve their career credentials quickly can now earn an associate degree in one year, thanks to Vincennes University’s new Accelerated Associate Degree option.
“In addition to being able to earn an associate degree in just one year, this new program is offered 100 percent online, so students don’t have to relocate or give up their current jobs. It’s a perfect alternative for someone who is highly motivated to complete an associate degree in virtually half the normal time,” said Lynne Rump, director of Distance Education at Vincennes University.
VU’s Accelerated Associate Degree Option is designed to help students earn their associate degree in General Studies with two concentration options – General Business or Behavioral Sciences.
The program is delivered 100 percent online. Classes are 8 weeks long and cover the same course content as regular semester-based courses. The study is rigorous and moves at an accelerated pace. The program requires students to be highly motivated and focused on their educational goals. It can be challenging, but very rewarding as students complete their Associate Degrees in just one year.
Accelerated program classes begin in January, March, May, July, August, and October, so students can begin at almost anytime during the year. Admission to the program is based on the university’s standard admissions criteria.
“College students today can be 45 as easily as 18; can be retooling for a second career as often as planning for that first job; can as likely be planning for emerging opportunities as planning for first opportunities. That’s why VU is developing innovative degree options,” Rump said.
VU’s Distance Education Program is committed to helping students be successful as they earn their college degrees online. Online advising and support services are designed to assist students with admissions, registration, choosing classes, exploring financial aid options, handling technology issues, and navigating the course management system.
Additional information is available at VU’s web site, www.vinu.edu/distance, by calling 1-800-880-7961 or by sending an email inquiry to: disted@vinu.edu
Source: Vincennes University
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Hard work pays off for Employment Skills Academy grad
By Haley Salitros, staff writer, Vincennes Sun-Commercial
Daniel Hellums didn’t have much of an education beyond the high school diploma, and the temporary factory jobs he was working didn’t offer him the type of lifestyle he wanted.
The one day he saw an advertisement in the local WorkOne office for the Employment Skills Academy, and he applied. Now Hellums has a good-paying job at the Futaba Indiana of America plant in the U.S. 41 Industrial Park, a job he says he wouldn’t have gotten without attending the academy.
The academy is a basic skills certification program sponsored by the Knox County Development Corp., Vincennes University, and a number of area employers. Its second class will start Aug. 31 and run through Nov. 21 on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. A coalition of Knox County employers support the no-cost training program that will equip participants with skills employers are looking for. Also, the coalition members will give those who complete the program preferential consideration when hiring.
The participating members include FIA, Superior Essex, Lewis Bakery, Excell, Packaging Corporation of America, Gemtron and Good Samaritan Hospital.
The course includes training in fundamental manufacturing concepts, such as problem solving and simulation exercises; workplace responsibilities like teamwork and work ethic; industrial communications studies such as developing reading, vocabulary and computer skills and integrated math.
Hellums said working on the reading and composition was the hardest to tackle when he went back to a learning environment. “I made improvement though. It’s easier for me to learn now than it was back then.”
He also found skills that he didn’t know he had. “I always did like math. I also learned how to outline my assets to tell employers what I could do.”
At FIA he runs a nut welding machine for the main body of Toyota’s Sienna minivans. He’s been cross-trained on three different areas and his current job requires running the machine, completing paperwork and communicating with other departments. His supervisor, Andrew Willis, said there is room for advancement and there are thirty other areas he could work in the factory. Willis himself started out in a welding position like Hellums’ and then became a team leader before becoming a supervisor.
“These classes are definitely a benefit to him,” he said.
Hellums works at least works 40 hours a week and likes the freedom of the job. He has recommended the Employment Skills Academy to his friends.
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Vincennes University to Build Technology Center
Vincennes University will begin construction this summer on a $12 million Center for Applied Technology on the Vincennes campus. Part of VU’s strategic plan to boost the Indiana economy, the project received backing from the State Budget Committee on June 2 when it approved $7 million in funding.
“The proposed 50,000 square-foot center will deliver innovative and progressive programming designed exclusively for the needs of business and industry training. The State Center for Applied Technology will offer flexible, workforce development opportunities tailored to the needs of employers of all kinds. It is designed to enable on- and off- campus curriculum delivery and will house equipment that parallels the technology currently being used by manufacturers and other high skilled careers. Industry emulation equipment and computer simulation programs will offer training for working adults who need the flexibility of having short-term, intensive, hands-on training, as well as students who choose advanced manufacturing and high skilled careers,” said Dick Helton, VU President.
“VU is prepared as never before to undertake an expanded role within our state system of higher education,” Helton said. “Last year, VU provided over 350,000 contact hours of training for Indiana workers. In addition, over 60 percent of VU’s 17,000 system-wide students are enrolled in vocational and technical career programs, with a focus on direct employment after completion of a two-year associate degree. These fields have more job openings than qualified graduates.”
The Indiana Department of Workforce Development released a survey recently that outlines skills the state is currently experiencing significant shortfalls. Of those areas of shortage, 16 of the 19 skills defined are currently being delivered by VU.
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Vectren to open two new underground coal mines near Vincennes
Vectren Fuels (Fuels), the wholly owned coal mining operations subsidiary of Vectren Corp. (NYSE:VVC) , has begun the process of opening two new underground mines near Vincennes, Ind. The first mine is expected to be fully operational by early 2009, with the second mine to open the following year. The southwestern Indiana mines will provide an estimated 425 local jobs to contract miners.
Both reserves are ideally located within 50 miles of eight coal-fired power plants and sit immediately adjacent to the CSX mainline railroad to easily serve neighboring facilities. Combined production is projected at five million tons annually, with the majority to be used at Vectren's A.B. Brown and F.B. Culley power plants in Posey and Warrick counties. This development will help replace the company's Cypress Creek surface mine in Boonville, Ind.
The mineral rights for the reserves, which are estimated at 80 million tons of recoverable number-five coal at 11,200 BTU (British thermal units) and 6-pound sulfur dioxide, were purchased from Templeton Coal Company. The $125 million investment should begin production in the coming years as Fuels works to obtain permits and construct surface and underground facilities.
Once in production, the two new mines, combined with Fuels' existing underground mine will yield approximately eight million tons of coal per year.
Source: Vectren Corp.
Local impact of Toyota: "Dramatic"
By GAYLE R. ROBBINS, business editor, Vincennes Sun-Commercial
Gary Gentry, president of the Knox County Development Corp., said is was “appropriate and fitting” to have as the featured speaker at Wednesday’s KCDC annual meeting a senior official from Toyota’s Princeton plant.
The reason was simple: Hundreds of county residents are either employed directly at the plant at Princeton, or indirectly at one of the area businesses which supply parts for Toyota, such as Futaba Indiana of America and Excell USA, both located in KCDC’s U.S. 41 Industrial Park.
“Toyota has had a dramatic impact on the Knox County economy over the last 10 years,” Gentry said. “We probably have at least 1,000 county residents working either for Toyota or for a parts supplier like Futaba.
“Having a Toyota plant in southwestern Indiana literally means millions of dollars are added to the economy of Knox County,” he added.
R.J. Reynolds, vice president for administration at Toyota’s Princeton plant, told a near-capacity audience gathered in the Robert E. Green Activities Center at Vincennes University for KCDC’s 26th annual meeting that the Japanese automaker is expected to continue to grow as the newly-designed Tundra truck enters the United States market.
Reynolds said the truck, projected to compete directly with Ford and General Motors truck lines would start being assembled at the Princeton plant early next year.
That news is already having an impact locally, with Futaba expanding and adding workers to meet the demand for parts for the Tundra, according to plant manager Jim O’Donnell.
A 145,000-square-foot addition to the manufacturing facility houses a stamping process to make parts for the truck. Another, 180,000-square-foot addition to the original plant houses a laser-welding operation, also to make parts for the Tundra.
Futaba now makes parts for Tundra double-cab trucks, Sienna minivans, and Sequoia SUVs, all built at Toyota's Princeton plant, plus parts for the Camry and Avalon models assembled at plants in Georgetown, Ky., and San Antonio, Texas.
Futaba opened in 2002 and is now four times its original size, a $40-$45 million investment in the industrial park and the county's economy. It also has expanded its workforce to almost 300 employees.
All that is directly related to the existence of Toyota’s Princeton plant.
KCDC Board Chairman Tony Burkhart, owner of Burkhart Insurance Agency, 1600 Willow St., explained that Toyota’s impact on the local economy can also be seen in rising wages as other businesses in the community compete for skilled labor.
“That’s what happens when you have companies like Futaba and Excell involved locally,” he explained. “People who don’t even have a job there also benefit because their employers have to pay more to keep them.”
Burkhart said higher wages paid by some companies also lead workers to seek more training or more education in order to be qualified to get one of the higher-paying jobs.
“And the better trained our workforce is as a whole, the better our chances of attracting more companies like Futaba to the county,” he said.
KCDC is a not-for-profit organization formed to support existing businesses and attract new companies to Knox County. Its operations are funded through private donations and contributions from the county and city.
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Wabash Steel LTD opened the doors for business on March 2, 2006
The new company purchased the building and equipment from the Vincennes Steel Corporation, which closed the doors after 107 years in business. Wabash is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kokosing Construction Co., located in Fredericktown, Ohio, which is in Knox County, Ohio.
On February 27 and 28, thirty-nine local residence and previous employees of Vincennes Steel participated in a two-day safety orientation. The new owners are very excited about the skills and talents of the employees. Currently the employees are unloading steel, conducting major clean up and reviewing the safety processes and procedures for the plant. Bill Burgett, President of Wabash Steel said "the employees should start cutting steel on Wednesday or Thursday of this week and be in full swing fabrication in 6 weeks".
Wabash will be pursing work across the Midwest for highway, railroad and pedestrian bridges. Wabash is wasting no time in making improvements to the plant that will provide a quality facility for their employees to work in. The company will immediately be investing over $550,000 modifying the existing building and installing a Blasteck machine, which will blast sheets of steel up to 10’ wide and 106’ long to a commercial grade finish. This process will improve the quality of the bridge girders being fabricated. The first steel bridge girders out of the plant will be delivered to a Kokosing project on I-271 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
The new name, Wabash Steel, comes from the Wabash River that runs right past the facility. The owners have made a practice of naming their companies after rivers. Kokosing Construction is named after the Kokosing River, which runs past their office in Fredericktown.
Kokosing Construction is a family owned general contracting business, started in 1951 by Bill Burgett. Kokosing specializes in building highways, bridges, underground utilities, marine construction, and heavy industrial work. In 2005, Kokosing was ranked 67th of the top 400 U.S. contractors by Engineering News-Record. For more about Kokosing visit their web site at www.kokosing.biz.
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Vincennes University students swept the top three places in national technology contest.
Vincennes University students swept the top three places in a national technology contest. The students are enrolled in VU’s Advanced Manufacturing program.
Mastercam’s Innovator of the Future contest helps introduce students to real-world manufacturing by asking them to produce a specific part that will be judged by a special guest from the manufacturing industry. The first guest judge was legendary hot-rod builder and designer Boyd Coddington of the Discovery Channel’s “American Hot Rod.” The theme for the first Innovator contest is a car wheel.
Finishing first, second, and third, respectively, are VU students Zac Frame, Logansport; Dan Hill, Unionville; and A.J. Sullivan, Louisville, Ky. As the first-place contestant, Frame will receive a $1,000 scholarship and an all-expense paid trip to a trade show as the honored guest of Mastercam (the next show is in Los Angeles). Frame will also be invited to speak at the show about the process of designing and manufacturing the hot rod wheel at VU. Frame’s winning wheel design will be part of Boyd Coddington’s wheel line.
Through a partnership with Haas Automation, the new VU lab is equipped with 13 machines, 40 percent of them purchased by VU and 60 percent of them donated by Haas.
The Haas Technical Education Center provides each student the opportunity to work on projects in collaboration with such companies as Toyota and Gemtron. For example, Toyota provided a project for students to machine prototype production tooling to assemble parts on its 2007 vehicles. These were shipped to Japan for testing. VU’s partnership with Haas Automation is a recent recipient of an Award of Excellence from the Indiana Commission on Career and Technical Education, in cooperation with the Indiana Association for Career and Technical Education.
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