Logansport: Hoosier Heartland Corridor and more.

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ALREADY HOME TO A diverse manufacturing base and quality of life that includes fine arts and abundant parks, the Cass County seat of Logansport is welcoming new developments.

They include a $23 million, 76,000-square-foot Ivy Tech Community College campus opening in fall 2009 and the final leg of the $500 million Hoosier Heartland Corridor, targeted for completion by 2013. It will bring four-lane transportation from Lafayette to Fort Wayne.

Also in the works: a runway extension to 5,000 feet and new hangar and administration building at the city's airport; a 2.4-mile expansion to Logansport's trail system, funded by a $1 million Federal Highway Administration grant; and, longer term, a new, 80-acre park. Planned to have sports fields, a water park, and perhaps a place for symphony performances, among other amenities, Huston Park will be built on donated land once funding can be secured.

Thanks to fiscal support from the U.S. Office of Community and Rural Affairs, downtown Logansport is perking up. The funding is supporting architectural projects on older buildings and new streetscapes under the focus of Logan's Landing, the community's Main Street program.

Big ideas. "We're coming to realize that we can do just about anything we want to do," second-term Mayor Mike Fincher says. "We're in the process of getting a new Ivy Tech campus. People told us that was impossible. We were told Hoosier Heartland would not be completed before 2020. It will be. We are now looking down the road further than we have in the past. And we're willing to work with businesses, to help them come here, grow and sustain."

Nolan "Skip" Kuker, president of the Logansport-Cass County Economic Development Foundation, sums up the community's enthusiasm by saying, "We're a small town with big ideas."

He's on a recruiting campaign, spending his increased marketing budget to promote the community. "We're especially looking for logistics, distribution and warehousing. And we're also looking at call centers," Kuker says. "This is a good area to think about for doing business."

Major employers. Of Cass County's top 20 employers--most in Logansport, the largest of five towns in the county of about 39,200 residents--11 are manufacturers.

They include Tyson Foods Inc., where 1,800 employees process 17,000 hogs a day; Federal-Mogul Corp., with a workforce of 350 making electronic components for automobiles; Kauffman Engineering Inc., with 360 making electrical wiring systems; and metal stamper Materials Processing Inc., employing 337.

About 24 percent of Cass County's labor force of approximately 20,400 are employed in manufacturing. Their products also include mechanical springs made at Matthew-Warren Spring Division, which employs 200; friction materials and clutches manufactured at Carlisle Industrial Brake & Friction, which has 150 workers; and precision castings produced at SUS Cast Products Inc., which has 80 on its payroll.

Other employers include metal stamper Tinnerman, employing 245; Total Electronics LLC, making electronic controls and employing about 140; and ESSROC Materials Inc., a cement and masonry plant employing 105.

Logansport is also home to Myers Spring, with 45 employees, which is adding $1 million in new equipment, and The Andersons ethanol plant, employing 65, also expanding.

One employer has announced it will close over the next year: Modine Manufacturing, which makes auto oil coolers and employs 125. Kuker reports he is already talking to company officials about future use of its building.

The town is also home to Logansport State Hospital, an in-patient psychiatric care facility that employs nearly 800, and Logansport Memorial Hospital, with a workforce of more than 600.

Pleasant, small-town life. Contributing to the quality of life is the McHale Performing Arts Center at Logansport Community High School. Built in 1976, the center brings in national performing acts as well as hosting local groups--Civic Players, Junior Civic Theater, the Logansport Children's Choir and school productions.

The city's famed carousel, which features 42 wooden animals hand-carved about 1902 by artisan Gustav Dentzel, is operated by a nonprofit foundation and is popular with both local residents and visitors.