Eastern Indiana update: the region's top business stories.

• Author: Mayer, Kathy
• Position: REGIONAL REPORT EAST

Growing agribusiness Rush Renewable Energy LLC'S plan to build an $82 million ethanol plant in Rushville tops the news in eastern Indiana. Announced in late December, the project is set for construction that will be annexed by the city Rush Renewable will employ 36 and produce 60 million gallons of ethanol a year.

"This is a significant first step in implementing the Agricultural Strategy for Rush County," says Greg Griffin, Rush County Economic & Community Development Corp. executive director.

Another sign of that agribusiness strength is a $4.2 million expansion that began last June at Rushville's Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., where capacity at the seed-corn plant is being expanded to 400,000 bushels. The company employs 30 year-round, hiring about 1,000 seasonally.

New service jobs. More than 400 new service jobs are on the horizon in Randolph and Henry counties.

The first 60 will be in Winchester, where the state of Indiana will open a Bureau of Motor Vehicles Processing Center in June. "They are leasing a 10,000-square-foot former grocery store that a developer purchased and remodeled. It's two blocks from courthouse square," reports Greg Beumer, executive director of the Randolph Economic Development Corp.

About 350 workers are expected to be added to the current workforce of 230 at the New Castle Correctional Facility, reports Brian Coats, executive director of the New Castle/Henry County Chamber of Commerce. "There had been a hiring freeze for state employees. The facility is now being run by a private company, Geo Group out of Boca Raton, Florida, and they'll be bringing more inmates to our area and hiring more workers."

More manufacturing. Manufacturing, too, is growing in the area.

In Richmond, an expansion that may top $35 million at the Johns Manville building products plant is slated for mid-2006 completion. The added space will allow the Denver-based company...