FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: August 31, 2009 CONTACT: Debbie Smith, Dearborn County CVTB Director 800-322-8198

Southeast Indiana Regional Bike Brochure Now Available

Southeast Indiana, Aug. 31, 2009 - Bicyclists from across the region now have a new resource when planning a trip to Southeast Indiana - a newly-published four-color map and brochure that highlights bike trails and tourism information from throughout the area.

A collaboration between four area convention and visitors bureaus, the publication features a variety of visitor information and sites of interest for bicyclists traveling to Dearborn County, Decatur County, Jennings County and Ripley County. In addition to a handy fold-out trail map in the brochure's interior, readers will find helpful information on attractions and historic sites, outdoor recreation and camping, area lodging and more. Mountain bike trails, trails along county roads, and the Dearborn Trails system are likewise clearly marked.

Southeast Indiana is known as a great biking destination because of the variety of ride experiences we offer, says Debbie Smith, Director of the Dearborn County Convention, Visitor & Tourism Bureau, which is one of the contributing partners. Whether you're a casual rider out with your family or a serious road warrior looking for a challenge, you'll find a Southeast Indiana bike route to meet your needs.

Located a short drive from both Indianapolis and Cincinnati, the regions topography is diverse in nature and includes both flat and hilly terrain. Bikers can explore routes encompassing everything from flat farmland and forests to gently rolling valleys and hills. Among the many trail options, cyclists can enjoy the quiet countryside outside the small town of Greensburg, hit the mountain bike trails at Versailles State Park or historic Muscatatuck Park, or travel along the Ohio River on the multi-use Dearborn Trails.

Copies of the Southeast Indiana Regional Bike Brochure are available free of charge from all of the participating tourism bureaus as well as at the I-74 state rest areas and other popular regional sites. PDF versions of the brochure can also be downloaded and printed from each of the tourism bureau websites. In the interest of a safe and enjoyable trip, the bureaus also remind cyclists to wear a helmet and be aware of their surroundings at all times.

Download Here

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Cincinnati Enquirer August 18, 2008 Greensburg awaits Honda boom As production nears, city has seen hints of change By Mike Boyer

GREENSBURG, Ind. - Not a lot has changed in this quiet Indiana farming town about 60 miles northwest of Cincinnati in the two years since Honda announced a $550 million assembly plant employing 2,000 and launching production this fall.

Despite seeming to hit the economic mother lode with the Honda project - pursued by communities from Ohio to Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin - Greensburg hasn't turned into a boom town overnight.

"A lot of outsiders predicted that. I'm not sure where it came from," says Jennifer Sturges, executive director of the Greensburg/Decatur County Chamber of Commerce.

"We're still kind of on the bubble, waiting to see what will happen," said Don Storie, who with his brother, Chuck, and sister, Beth, operates Stories Restaurant, a popular spot across Main Street from the Decatur County courthouse.

One big fear after the Honda decision was that it would dramatically alter this old city of about 11,000 residents.

"Things haven't changed as much as people expected," said Angie Rethlake, 37, who operates Where the Cookie Crumbles, a small cake-decorating and cookie bouquet shop on Washington Street, on the opposite side of the courthouse square from Stories.

"It's still a little early," she said.

But there are signs of what's ahead:

Honda's 1 million-square-foot plant has risen out of former cornfields overlooking Interstate 74 on the north edge of the city.

About 700 new Honda employees are gearing up inside for first production this fall of four-door Civics. Employment will grow to 1,000 by year-end, said Andrew Stoner, Honda spokesman, and increase to 2,000 next year when a second production shift starts increasing production to 200,000 units annually.

The four-cylinder Civic compact is in the sweet spot of the increasingly fuel-conscious auto market. Through July, the Civic was the third best-selling car behind the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord sedans. Overall, while U.S. auto sales fell 13 percent last month from a year ago, Honda's sales were off just 1.6 percent.

A new U.S. 421 interchange with Interstate 74 built by the state for the 1,700-acre Honda site opened this summer. The first signs of new development along U.S. 421 are starting to sprout. A new 133-room Hampton Inn & Suites hotel and Napoleon State Bank branch opened this summer along the four-lane road. There is talk about more new restaurants and possibly a big-box retailer such as Target locating along U.S. 421.

"Greensburg is still searching for its new normal," said Melanie Maxwell, executive director of the Decatur County Visitors and Recreation Commission.

Revenues from the county's 5 percent hotel/motel tax increased 20 percent from last year, she said. The county had about 250 hotel rooms before the Hampton Inn, built to cater to Honda business customers, opened.

Local contractors prosper

Midwest Logistics Group, a Honda satellite, has set up separate operations employing about 450 in Greensburg to handle just-in-time logistics and tire and wheel assembly for the Honda plant. Among local businesses, some have won contracts ranging from catering Honda events to fabricating equipment for the assembly line.

Sam Koester, owner of K-Fab Inc., a Greensburg metal fabrication shop employing eight, says, "The last six months have really been busy. Without work from Honda, it would have been steady to slow."

His shop has received several orders ranging from $50,000 to $60,000 each to supply machine guarding, carts and other items to the plant.

'Inside is a beehive'

While construction of the assembly plant is finished, Honda's Stoner said, "inside is a beehive" as assembly equipment is installed and tested and workers practice assembly and teardown of nonproduction vehicles, gearing toward a formal production start in late October or early November.

The plant will do metal stamping, welding and assembly of the Civics with engines and drive-trains supplied from Honda's engine plant in Anna, Ohio.

Honda officials said one of the reasons they picked Greensburg was its proximity to its main manufacturing complex in Marysville, Ohio, three hours away, allowing existing suppliers to stay where they were and serve both plants.

Entrepreneur Terry Powell, 56, of Dearborn County, who opened a Buffalo Wings & Rings franchise south of the Honda plant at U.S. 421 and Ind. 3 last November, said his business has remained steady in the notoriously up-and-down restaurant business thanks to traffic from plant construction workers.

"We're very happy here," said Powell, who's planning a second location closer to Indianapolis.

Rising gas prices have hurt the Monday through Wednesday dinner traffic at Stories Restaurant, said Don Storie, but that's been offset by increased lunch traffic from construction workers at the plant.

But with construction finishing, Storie said he's starting to say good-bye to those lunchtime regulars. And with Honda preparing for launch production, he doesn't expect plant workers to help his lunch traffic.

They will likely be eating at the plant's cafeteria.

Real estate broker Gloria Paras of Greensburg Realty Group said the Honda plant has helped insulate the local real estate market from the downturn affecting the industry nationally.

"It's been a wonderful shot in the arm," she said.

Many of the early Honda employees coming to Greensburg rented or leased homes, but Paras said that's starting to change. She represents Winchester Park, a neighborhood of 51 single-family homes priced between $200,000 and $300,000 near the Greensburg Country Club and about five minutes from the plant. Nine homes have been sold.

"We had one that was only two-thirds finished and it sold already," she said.

She's also seeing interest in some of Greensburg's older buildings from investors and developers.

"I showed the former YMCA on Broadway to an investor from Cincinnati interested in turning it into office space," she said.

Local leaders and business people say they view the Honda plant as a long-term investment in the community's future.

"A lot of older people were concerned about Honda changing the community, but a lot of young people are looking for the opportunity," said cookie-shop owner Angie Rethlake.

The chamber's Sturges said the Honda plant has given Greensburg visibility and priority when it comes to funding public projects such as the long-sought U.S. 421 interchange.

But Greensburg's first Starbucks coffee shop, open less than a year on Lincoln Street, is on the list of 600 stores set for closing as the coffee chain retrenches.

"Honda doesn't mean we're immune from the economy," said Sturges.

-- Mike Boyer

News 5 At 6:00
WLWT-TV CH 5 (NBC) Cincinnati
06/20/2008 06:00 PM - 06:30 PM

ANCHOR: Two years ago, news five was first to tell you it was coming. Tonight, we have an update on the Honda plant being built in Greensburg, Indiana. Greensburg is about an hour's drive from both Cincinnati and Indianapolis, giving the company access to millions of job candidates.

News Five's Brian Hamrick has more.

---

Greensburg, Indiana most known for the tree growing out of the roof of the Courthouse, but by fall Honda will be giving that tree a little competition.

Just outside of town, there's a giant job for Vanna White, as the letters of Honda go on the new plant seeming to stop the Wheel of Fortune right on top of this small town.

"Oh yeah, there's a lot of excitement, I think it's going to be good for our economy," said Lisa Asche, a Greensburg resident.

Five-hundred of the expected 2,000 employees have already been hired, and the first new cars are expected off the assembly line here beginning in October -- eventually cranking out 800 Honda Civic's a day, a car that has become increasingly popular as the gas crunch intensifies.

In the shadow of the famous Courthouse, the farmer's market, and the long-time residents here know that the Honda plant is the new cash cow of this region,.

"So far for this town and this area, it's been a really positive experience and we're just trying to make the most of it," said Brian Robbins, Main Street Greensburg.

There is debate here over what kind of growth they want and how fast, despite that it's already arriving, in the form of a small car now driving the economy here. Whats growing most in Greensburg, Indiana is around the Honda plant -- already a Hampton Inn, a credit union and changes around the interchange that mean even more development here.

Brian Hamrick, News Five Where the News Comes First

http://www.indymoms.com/posts/greensburg-grizzlies

By Eamonn Brennan

Greensburg sits quietly off Interstate 74 in eastern Indiana, halfway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati, and has just one distinguishing feature: a small, oddly persistent tree that's been growing out of the top of its scenic courthouse building since 1870. "Before Honda came here, that tree was the most notable thing about our town," said Neil Cortus, an office manager at Sweet's Auto Repair in Greensburg.

That.s about to change.

Two years ago, Honda announced it would build its popular Civic sedan in Greensburg at a plant that would, like the descent of other foreign automotive plants into Indiana, provide jobs and foster growth in the sleepy town. Some residents are eager for the boom to arrive; Honda says the plant will open in the next few months. Others wouldn't mind waiting a while longer.

"There have been mixed feelings," Cortus said. "Overall, people are excited because of the money it's likely to bring, but some worry that the small-town feel we have here is going to get lost in the trade."

Economic Boom

For all the concern, there's little doubt that Honda's arrival will bring a new economic engine to Greensburg and Decatur County. Honda promises to bring 2,000 manufacturing jobs to the town, and if Toyota's decade-old investment across the state in Princeton, Gibson County, is any indication, Decatur County residents will experience a jump in salaries, too. The average salary for Gibson County residents hit $42,091 in 2004, about six years after Toyota opened its Princeton plant. That's an increase of 66 percent from the $25,410 average in 1994, according to the Indiana Business Research Center.

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Greensburg is also likely to see a rise in population and increased tax revenue for development, officials say. Mayor Gary Herbert said he expects an influx of about 1,000 people, largely former commuters who will want to relocate thanks to the high price of gas. That projection has already spurred new housing in town; not far from the plant on the west side of Greensburg, rows of new suburban houses with green yards line freshly paved streets. More are likely to come, Herbert said.

Like other Honda sites before it, Greensburg is also likely to benefit from Honda's corporate philanthropic efforts. Already, Herbert said, Honda has donated enough money to cover the salaries for three firefighters who are needed at the plant.

But Greensburg's other changes are happening more slowly.

"We don't want to move too fast," Herbert said. "We've got a lot of good problems to have, and we want to grow at a controlled rate."

It's the idea of prosperous growth that has Greensburg residents excited. So excited, in fact, that when word first leaked in 2006 that Honda was considering the town for its plant, 300 of its residents donned red shirts and formed Honda's trademark red "H" on the courthouse steps. They took an aerial photo and emailed it to Honda headquarters in Japan.

"That was a sign that people were really friendly," Honda spokesman Ed Miller said.

Seeds of Doubts

Not everyone in "Tree City" was on those courthouse steps in 2006, and not everyone in the town is pining for growth.

"It's ruining our hometown," said Wallpe's Keg bartender Patty Pleak, who has lived in Greensburg for all of her 49 years. She said she's now considering moving, thanks to Honda. "It just seems like we're losing that small-town feel. I think more people have moved here, and I see more people in the bars. I loved this town, and it makes me want to leave."

Cortus said others share Pleak's concerns.

"I think we knew going into this that there would be good things and bad things," Cortus said.

One concern is the number of jobs that Greensburg residents will be able to fill. Honda has officially opened its hiring to residents within 90 miles of the plant, an area that includes parts of the Indianapolis metro area and several other counties. Herbert said he hopes half of the 2,000 Honda jobs will be filled by Decatur County residents, and is pushing Honda toward hiring recently laid-off local manufacturing employees first.

Cortus is also concerned about overdevelopment and how much philanthropy Honda has a stomach for, but said he realizes it's too early in the process to malign Honda for either.

"I could be this real hometown guy and sit here and say they haven't done enough for us yet," he said. "But the truth is, you've got to start making a buck before you start giving it away."

Two Feet In

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Even with doubters in town, it's clear that many residents are excited about Greensburg's future.

"I just want to have stuff in our town," said Cindy Pinsom, manager of Macabo's bar. "Stores, restaurants - we need those things. Right now our nicest restaurant is Chili's."

There's no question that Greensburg is about to branch out - whether it will remain the Tree City is the question.

"The small-town feel, that's not Honda," Herbert said. "That's in us. That's in your people."

Indiana: The Pain and Promise of U.S. Automaking Part 1

Visit www.projectpaige.com to watch their feature on the Stapps' Circle S Ranch and the Bears (Episode 16).