City spotlight: Connersville.

• Author: Price, Larry
• Position: Regional Report: Southeast

When a storm of historic proportions caused flooding a few months ago in Connersville, the community came to the rescue.

One construction company pulled employees off regular duty to help people whose basements were flooded. Workers at another company donated their labor to replace ruined furnaces and air-conditioning systems.

The storm that caused the Whitewater River to spill into homes was rare. The spirit of cooperation among the people was not, say city residents and officials.

They credit hometown attitudes and historically solid work ethics with helping their city weather another storm--an economy that has suffered through a transition from depending on manufacturing to a new era when no city can afford to have all its economic eggs in the same industrial basket. The city has dealt with job loss and, therefore, a population loss during the past decade. The census count dropped from 17,000 in 1980 to 15,500 in 1990.

Once known as "Little Detroit" because of its bustling auto industry, Connersville has found itself read-justing in recent years to an economy less dependent on cars. As it is, its main employer--Ford Electronics and Refrigeration Corp.--is auto-related and is a healthy anchor, and other major employers also are auto-related. But Connersville, in keeping with a progressive history, is developing a more diverse economy to prepare for and compete in the growing worldwide economic arena.

"We are connected with automobiles some here yet, but not like we used to be," says Mayor Marion Newhouse. He tries to keep the downturn of recent years in perspective.

"To be high on the unemployment, you had to have that economic base at one time," he says.

Indeed, Connersville has seen plenty of good times before. In the early part of the century, the Little Detroit name developed because of the proliferation of auto-industry and related companies.

At one time, Connersville area factories also made 10 percent of the world's refrigerators, he says. Between 1941 and 1945, more than 100,000 military vehicle bodies were made in Connersville.

A local company was the second-largest producer of steel kitchen cabinets, before wood knocked them out of popularity.

Connersville also boasted one of the first high-school bands. Also, this city was among the first in the nation to open an industrial park--the city's old park dates to 1886.

Such forward thinking will lead to more first in Connersville's future, leaders say.

Scott Bevington, director of...