Mount Vernon.

• Author: Derk, James S.
• Position: Attractions to businesses in Mount Vernon, Indiana

Mount Vernon is a community poised to land a large industrial plant.

Many other towns might be thinking the same thing, but this Posey County community has come close many times and experts in Southwestern Indiana agree it is only a matter of time until the big fish is reeled in.

Mount Vernon, nestled in the southwestern pocket of the state, has a lot to offer industrial and business clients:

* It's only minutes from Evansville, the state's third-largest city.

* It's home to the Southwind Maritime Centre, a large Ohio River port with huge parcels of undeveloped land.

* It's already home to the some of the area's largest employers, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and GE Plastics.

* The local government--after a 20-year struggle--this year finally passed a countywide zoning ordinance.

* It boasts a skilled labor force of 12,290 workers who so far have shunned unions; of the county's top 10 employers only one--ADM Milling Co.--is unionized.

Nancy Gibson Burns, executive vice president of the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce, says the community likes to tout that its industries can thrive without a lot of union activity. "We're very proud of that," she says. The community of 7,300 people, the county seat of Posey County, is poised for economic-development gains because, Burns says, it has abundant land, great resources and good infrastructure.

GE Plastics is the county's largest employer. At a sprawling facility south of Mount Vernon near the Ohio River, the company makes plastic materials that wind up in cars, coffeemakers, hair dryers and even professional football helmets. Some 1,700 people go to work at the plant.

Another major area employer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, has its headquarters, offices and some production facilities in Evansville, but has huge pharmaceutical manufacturing, packaging and warehouse operations in the cornfields outside Mount Vernon. About 800 employees package and distribute, among other things, products for Bristol-Myer's Mead Johnson division, including Enfamil and Prosobee infant formulas.

GAF Corp. also employs about 800 in the Mount Vernon area. The company makes roofing materials. Some of the community's other industrial employers include Babcock & Wilcox, a producer of solid-rocket casings for the space-shuttle program; ADM Milling, which operates Indiana's largest flour mill in Mount Vernon; Indianapolis-based Countrymark Cooperative, which has a petroleum-refining operation in Mount Vernon; Mount Vernon Screw...