South-Central Indiana update: the region's top business stories.

New manufacturing. Cummins Inc.'s employment base of 5,400 in the Columbus area, where it is head-quartered, is about to grow by up to 800, the company said last month when it announced that the Columbus Engine Plant would produce a new family of light-duty, clean-diesel engines. Cummins will spend $250 million to ready its plant for the new product.

Production is slated to begin by 2010, with preparation under way by mid-2007. About 200 will be hired by year-end 2007, the remaining within two years of product launch, the company reports. The engine will power vehicles under 8,500 pounds, including pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles.

"We will be manufacturing a great new product that will increase fuel efficiency by 30 percent or more, thus saving energy and making us less dependent on foreign oil," Cummins CEO Tim Solso said at the October announcement, noting that for Cummins, this is an "opportunity to develop a completely new market."

In Bedford, Gene McCracken, executive director of the Lawrence County Economic Growth Council, reports that General Motors Corp. is spending $48 million to add a new line at its GM Powertrain plant now employing 765. It will produce six-speed transmission cases and converters. That's good news for a facility facing significant job losses as it current transmission lines are being phased out.

In Bloomington, General Electric, employing 1,100, is making a $35 million investment to convert production of its side-by-side refrigerators from sheet metal to plastic liners.

In Jackson County, Crothersville is the beneficiary of the latest growth by Aisin U.S.A. Manufacturing Inc., which already operates a drive-train plant there and two sites in Seymour. The newest operation will be Aisin Chemical Indiana LLC, to open July 2007 and produce segment-type discs using wet friction material, for automatic transmission vehicles.

Aisin currently employs about 2,000 in the county. Initial employment at the new plant will be about 25.

More life sciences, Bloomington's growth in life sciences continues to bring headlines even as the city launches plans to go after even more life-science business, the Bloomington Economic Development Corp. reports.

The largest life-science employer, Cook Inc., now has 2,200 on the payroll as it continues its $12 million headquarters expansion in Park 48. The company makes diagnostic and interventional medical products.

A spin-off, Cook Pharmica, a contract manufacturer for the biotech drug industry, has completed its $60 million renovation of a vacant plant and now has 100 employees on the payroll, with another 100 slated to come on board in the next couple of years.

Another shining star is Baxter Healthcare Corp., which has completed a $110 million expansion. The company fills syringes and vials for the medical industry Current employment is about 850; it expects to add 300 to 400 employees over the next few years.

BioConvergence, doing development for the biopharmaceutical industry, has moved into its new facility and is "up and running," reports CEO, Alisa Wright. The company currently employs 20 and is now working on a design to expand its facility so it can offer parenteral--injected and infused--clinical trial manufacturing. "That's the next step after our development services," Wright says.

ProCure Treatment Centers, a startup spin-off of Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute, is building an 18,000-square-foot training center that will employ 60. When it opens in late 2007 it will provide education on using proton beam therapy in cancer treatments.

Meanwhile, the city is keeping new opportunities on the front burner with a recently announced, multi-year action plan for its certified technology park and inVenture, its business incubator. "The plan will serve as a guide for business development within the technology park and help us retain and attract employment and investment in downtown Bloomington," says Bloomington mayor Mark Kruzan.

Software upgrade, LHP Software LLC has built and will complete its move this month into a $2.3 million facility in Columbus' Certified Technology Park, Infotech Park. The company is an engine software and information technology consulting company, reports Courtney Carr, executive director of the Columbus Economic Development Board, which is now part of the newly formed, eight-organization Columbus Area Economic Growth Council.

Brown County, too, is hoping that its new economic-development organization will help bring in industry and jobs, reports Paul Schultheis, executive director of the Brown County Chamber of Commerce.

"They're plugging along," he says of the startup organization. "They are so shackled as far as what they can do because such a large percentage of this county is the state park or land in a flood plain."

The county also wants to preserve its tourism draw, making industrial attraction a challenge, he says. "Because of the natural beauty and tourism here, we're very limited as to what we can attract. It can't be seen, heard or smelled." The group is now developing an inventory of possible locations. "They're taking the property steps, identifying what we need and working on that."