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

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

MANUFACTURING expansions and recreation options are drawing two sources of revenue to Southern Indiana's five-county area of Clark, Crawford, Floyd, Harrison and Washington counties.

Manufacturing. In high-dollar investments, Jeffersonville-based American Commercial Lines Inc., known locally as "Jeffboat," tops the list with completion of its $17.5 million expansion announced in July 2006, when the shipyard employed about 1,200. Today, 1,616 are on the payroll in Jeffersonville, making and repairing towboats, tankers and barges, reports Matt Hall, vice president for economic development at One Southern Indiana. It's the largest single-site inland shipbuilding and repair facility in the U.S., covering nearly 70 acres, with 5,600 feet fronting the Ohio River. Jeffboat designs and builds for third-party customers and its own transportation business. The company reported nearly $1 billion in revenues at yearend 2007 and 3,300 employees on the payroll corporate-wide.

Another operation expanding in Jeffersonville is CLARCOR Inc., Air Filtration Projects. The company is spending $8.5 million to lease and equip 450,000 square feet in the River Ridge Commerce Center. It will accommodate operations that are closing in New Albany and Kentucky. About 325 are on the job now in Jeffersonville, with another 100 coming.

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"This is a retention and expansion project," Hall says. "They looked all over the Midwest and chose to consolidate here." The company makes heating, ventilation and air conditioning products under Purolater, Airguard and Air Technologies brand names. Its products are used in commercial, industrial, institutional and residential applications.

Also in Jeffersonville, C&G Technologies Inc. is spending $1.6 million on an expansion and doubling its operating capabilities. The company refurbishes computer tomography (CT) scanners used in medical imaging. C&G currently employs 35 and is adding another 33.

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Three Harrison County manufacturers are also expanding, says Darrell Voelker, economic development director at Harrison County Chamber of Commerce. California-headquartered Howard Packaging, which began operations in Corydon in 2006, has purchased the site it had been leasing in the Harrison County Industrial Park and additional acreage, and is now adding on to its plant. The company employs 65, who make plastic bottles for Lucas Oil Products, about a mile away.

Awningtec U.S.A., also in Corydon, is...