Community attempts rebound after Indiana auto-parts factory shuts down

CONNERSVILLE, Ind. -- Banners bearing the label "Positively! Connersville" beam happy thoughts to drivers passing through downtown, while storefront signs in this eastern Indiana city remind pedestrians "the future is in our hands."\nThat wave of optimism, however, hasn't washed over the entire community, which is reeling from the news earlier this month that its largest employer, Visteon Corp., plans to close its enormous factory.\nThe September shutdown will idle 890 employees. One of them, Gary Mays, has no idea what he'll do when his 20-year run at the factory ends.\n"This town is down to nothing," Mays, 44, said as he finished lunch at Maggie's Diner before the start of a recent shift. "You're looking at a ghost town for business."\nConnersville joined a growing list of Indiana communities hit recently by a string of auto-parts factory closings. All told, four major Indiana auto-parts plants have either closed or announced closings since December, closings that will cut more than 4,000 jobs statewide.\nThe latest entry, Muncie, learned Thursday that Auburn Hills, Mich.-based BorgWarner will close its factory there by 2009, idling 780 workers. But economists and politicians say the news isn't as bleak as it might appear.\nEven leaders in Connersville, where Visteon once employed more than 3,500 people, see signs of hope.\nFor starters, manufacturing is far from dead in the state, said Patrick Barkey, director of economic and policy studies at Ball State University. Since 2004, the state's manufacturing job totals have stayed within a narrow range, centered on 570,000. For every factory that closes, several others embark on smaller-scale expansions, he noted.\nVisteon had trimmed jobs for years at its Connersville factory, which makes climate-control products like heating and air-conditioning systems. The closing surprised few in this city of nearly 16,000 people.\nStill, it promises to deliver a deep blow to the area after it arrives.\nThe factory contributes about $4 million in tax revenue, or about 10 percent of the entire amount collected in Fayette County, Connersville Mayor Max Ellison said. At one time, it also contributed about a quarter of the city's tax revenue.\n"I told a couple people the other day I felt like we were sleeping under the sword of Damocles, you know?" Ellison said.\nNow that the sword has fallen, the area probably won't attract another employer of Visteon's size. But it can rebound by recruiting smaller businesses that might employ 50 or 60 people, said Pete Bell, a business owner and chairman of the local economic development group.\nHe sees many selling points, starting with a highly skilled work force.\n"Tool and die makers, machinists and those sorts of folks just abound in this region," Bell said.\nHe also touts the community's school system, its proximity to big cities (Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Dayton are all about an hour away), and Connersville's quality of life.\n"I never take the keys out of my car. They're in it right now," he said. "I challenge you to find a number of communities where people live like that."\nBell said business leaders have started spreading the word about his city by literally knocking on doors. Several months ago, they began showing up unannounced at companies in other regions and states, looking for anyone in need of a good work force.\nThey've visited Ohio, Michigan and Tennessee. They ask for someone in purchasing and human resources, and then they deliver their Connersville pitch. Bell said a company owner who saw her business starting to fade due to the Visteon cuts first suggested this.\n"It's a different approach to marketing communities. ... It's literally the old Kirby vacuum cleaner sales routine, you know -- you knock on doors and ask for business," he said.\nNo one's moved here yet, but Bell concedes the city needs to knock on more doors.\nOfficials also have talked to vendors who want to build sites near the new factory Honda Motor Co. is building about 30 miles southwest of Connersville in Greensburg. And they're encouraged by an agricultural energy park planned for west of the city.\nEllison said the anchor tenant, an ethanol plant, will start construction this spring, and the park could employ as many as 1,000 people once it is fully developed.\nPeople in every community need hope, said Fuzzy Lake, a Connersville business owner and pastor.\nThe president of the Fayette County Ministerial Association said the group has had as many as 40 people attend regular prayer vigils for the community. He believes that makes a difference.\n"I've been here 30 years, and I've seen them go through a lot of stuff," he said. "I've always seen the community bounce back"