A sign on the front window of Crafts and Occassions in downtown Greensburg welcomes Honda to Indiana. (Photo by Mike Dickbernd)
A sign on the front window of Crafts and Occassions in downtown Greensburg welcomes Honda to Indiana. (Photo by Mike Dickbernd)
By Kirk Johannesen, The Republic Senior reporter

GREENSBURG — When a company such as Honda locates in an area, it’s a sure sign that the area is prime for growth, according to Decatur County Commissioners President Jerome Buening.

With Honda announcing last week that it will locate its next auto plant in Decatur County, community leaders are putting together plans to deal with expected expansion.

Some plans for economic growth have been in place for a few years, but other ideas are being implemented as part of a long-range vision for Greensburg and Decatur County.

Identify needs

Vicki Kellerman, executive director of the Greensburg/Decatur County Economic Development Corp., said the community needs to consider what it has and what its strengths and weaknesses are and to explore opportunities that could be beneficial.

Jean Johannigman, owner of an interior design business and president of Downtown Greensburg Development Corp., said she’d like to see a study conducted on the city and county.

The study would identify what businesses the community has, which potential businesses might come in and which ones could be viable downtown.

“We need to have a plan in place where we’re going to grow, how we’re going to grow,” Johannigman said.

She said adding new and more restaurants, shopping and entertainment will be crucial in attracting and keeping newcomers to the community.

Steve Freeman, president of the Greensburg/Decatur County Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber will conduct a study of the supplier base of Honda as part of efforts to attract those businesses to the county.

He said that could mean more automotive-based jobs for people.

Freeman acknowledged that some employers are concerned about losing employees to Honda. He said employers need to devise succession plans so that if employees leave, employers will know how to fill those positions.

Freeman said the chamber is developing a three-part training course to prepare employers for those situations.

Melanie Maxwell, executive director of Decatur County Visitors and Recreation Commission, said Wednesday’s announcement by Honda highlighted one need.

Because more than 400 people were crammed into the Greensburg Community Learning Center, it showed that a large meeting facility or convention center is needed. Maxwell said the idea has been discussed for years.

She said one selling point for a convention center is that it would be a halfway point between Indianapolis and Cincinnati, and a good meeting place for businesses from both cities.

While continuing to devise creative tourist packages, Maxwell said, she would begin setting up business packages to attract more people.

If more people are coming to Greensburg and Decatur County, though, they’ll need to find locations easily.

Maxwell said she would like to see the directional signage in the city and county improve.

Update plans

Freeman said a chamber committee formulated an Envision Decatur County plan within the last two years.

Representatives of different vocations were asked what they thought the county needed.

At the time, they wanted to play to their strength of agriculture, and they were looking at smaller industries coming to the area, providing 200 to 500 jobs.

Freeman said that plan needs to be revamped.

David Neuman, Decatur County’s area plan director and building commissioner, said he expects that the zoning board will have to rezone more areas for industrial use for companies that follow Honda.

With this in mind, he said the city and county need to formulate a new comprehensive plan. He also said a new industrial plan is in the works.

Neuman said the city and county have worked separately, but need to work together on a new comprehensive plan. He said the current one is 10 years old and was met and exceeded within five years.

Part of the plan would be determining how industry would fit into the community. Neuman said it’s important to make sure industrial sites are near residential sites, don’t cause traffic problems or produce bad odors and blend into the environment.

Neuman said the comprehensive plan needs to have a short-term scope of two to five years, and a long-term scope of 10 years. However, he expects the plan would need to be updated in eight years because of changes.

Neuman said a new industrial ordinance is receiving its first hearing Wednesday.

One the ordinance’s key elements is to make sure industrial sites are surrounded by enough green space to cut down on noise and make sure a site isn’t an eyesore.

“If they would have this new industrial ordinance, (Honda) would have beat and exceeded everything we would have asked them,” Neuman said.

The proposed ordinance would receive another hearing after Wednesday’s and then go before the county commissioners, Neuman said. The current ordinance was developed in 1996.

Areas for growth

With a new comprehensive plan and industrial ordinance in the works, the Economic Development Corp. will be busy looking for additional options on land for people who want to come in and do business in the county.

“In the immediate future we will try to identify additional properties that are suitable for industrial development,” Kellerman said.

Once identified, the goal is to get the properties ready for shovel-ready certification.

Kellerman said that identifying key properties was the vision of the EDC when it was formed 3½ years ago. She said then-Executive Director Mike Walker and the board devised a strategic plan and secured options on 440 acres that make up Greensburg’s rail park.

Kellerman said the rail park is included in the land Honda will develop for its plant.

Neuman said Greensburg has a small industrial park in the northeast part of the city, and that expanding it might be a good idea.

However, he foresees growth to the west and northwest of Greensburg along Indiana 46, and to the south.

Greensburg Mayor Frank Manus said he’d like to see somebody buy the NTN-BCA site that is vacant and use it for industry. Manus said that 300 employees lost their jobs when NTN left Greensburg in 2003.

Manus also said developing land for housing will be important to accommodate people who move to the county.

Manus said 45 acres to the northeast of Greensburg could be developed. He said one contractor has been building houses like he knew Honda was coming to town.

But now that everybody knows, planning will be crucial for Greensburg and Decatur County.
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