Mount Vernon.

• Author: YANCEY, MADONNA G.
• Position: GAF Materials Corp. - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

When GAF Materials Corp. broke ground in April for a major expansion of its Mount Vernon plant, it marked the beginning of yet another chapter in Posey County's continuing economic success story.

Mount Vernon has a stable economic base with a diverse mixture of manufacturing, service and retail businesses and two of southwestern Indiana's largest employers--GE Plastics and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Last year, Bristol-Myers Squibb, a pharmaceutical research and manufacturing company, opened a new distribution center in the Southwind Maritime Centre. The 600,000-square-foot facility added 160 new jobs, bringing the company's Mount Vernon workforce to nearly 400 employees.

GAF, a manufacturer of roofing materials, has been in Mount Vernon since 1972. With 175 employees, it is one of Mount Vernon's major employers. Construction is underway on a second plant adjacent to the company's current facility. GAP is investing $20 million in land, utilities and equipment for the new plant, which will manufacture EverGuard, a new type of plastic roofing material for the commercial market. The project should be completed by yearend, adding about 50 jobs to the company's workforce.

Work is scheduled to begin this month on a $4.5 million equipment upgrade at Infinity Molding and Assembly Inc. (formerly Mid-America Plastics Inc.), which will boost its workforce to 130. The company provides custom injection molding for the automobile, telecommunications, electronics and packaging industries.

There's also an international flavor in Mount Vernon's business mix. Wartsila NSD manufactures diesel and gasoline engines for marine industrial and power-generation applications. Located in a portion of the Babcock-Wilcox facility, Wartsila employs 20 and is the Finnish company's only U.S. manufacturing plant.

In addition, Southwind Maritime Centre increasingly is becoming a center of international trade. The Ohio River port has been designated as a foreign-trade zone, allowing manufacturers to qualify for reduced duties and to schedule customs entries according to business cycles and inventory requirements. Southwind's director, Don Snyder, notes that Polar Minerals imports approximately 80,000 tons of product annually from the Republic of China...