There’s no better time than the Fourth of July to shine a spotlight on Independence.

In our case, that means searching for the word in Site Selection’s New Plant Database. Lo and behold, over the past five years, there have been no fewer than 30 corporate facility projects in nine states with places named for this persistent American attribute.

Those projects (see selected projects chart below) offer as good a snapshot as any of the United States of America’s past, present and future, often in the form of good old manufacturing and fabrication. The companies behind the projects are making products ranging from ice cream and tools to ammo and air conditioning.

There’s Range Resources’ activity in Independence Township, Pa., smack in the middle of shale gas territory in Beaver County, where to date it’s drilled eight wells. Down in the Bayou in Tangipahoa Parish, Lamp Recyclers of Louisiana was accepted into the Louisiana State Enterprise Zone program last year with a nearly $2-million expansion in Independence, La.

Also last year, Vox Mobile, an enterprise mobility firm based in the Cleveland suburb of Independence, Ohio, invested half a million dollars and pledged to add 200 jobs to its payroll of 21, at an average salary of more than $47,000. That’s a big jump in payroll, and it earned the company incentives from JobsOhio. The planned expansion came after the firm attracted a $7.5-million growth round of funding from Edison Ventures of New Jersey.

Travel down I-71 from there and you’ll come to Greater Cincinnati, which encompasses Independence, Ky., just across the Ohio River. That community has recently welcomed major projects from control instrument maker Balluff (HQ) and from metal fabrication firm Augur Metal Products.

Or consider VT Hackney’s $3-million plant expansion a couple years ago in Independence, Kan., where the longtime maker of specialized aluminum truck bodies and trailers added 70,000 sq. ft. and 70 more jobs to its 100-employee operation. The plant is the only place the company manufactures other than its home location in another patriotically named town: Washington, N.C.

Keep the Fireworks Coming: The welding has only increased at Med-Fit Systems’ growing operation (inset) in Independence, Va., where the company makes Nautilus and other fitness equipment.

Photo courtesy of Med-Fit Systems

The company’s heritage goes back to 1946, when James A. Hackney and his son James A. Hackney, Jr. started the firm based on a family heritage in the transportation industry dating back to the 1600s in England, i.e. the original hackney. The company history explains, “soon after opening for business in 1946, the company quickly began specializing in truck bodies for delivery of consumer beverages.”

You can practically hear Nat King Cole crooning about “those days of soda and pretzels and beer.” Well, some of us can, anyway.

The Kansas project, announced in June 2011, had summertime written all over it: The company expanded its Kidron product line to build refrigerated truck bodies that service multi-stop food, dairy and ice distributors.

Manufacturing Independence

The summery vibe continues in Independence, Va., where a couple years ago Independence Homes, LLC, decided to invest a million dollars to begin producing modular cabins and cottages in the former Keiser-Roth building. The project was supported by the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission, the Grayson County Board of Supervisors, the Grayson County Industrial Development Authority, the Independence Industrial Development Authority and the Blue Ridge Crossroads Small Business Development Center. The units were targeted to Baby Boomers looking for affordable vacation homes, as well as those looking to add “in-law” or caregiver units to their existing dwellings.

Located not far from the highest peaks in Virginia in Grayson Highlands State Park, this Independence found the Site Selection spotlight a couple years ago when we talked to Dean Sbragia, founder and CEO of California-based Med-Fit Systems, which had purchased fitness equipment builder Nautilus in February 2010. Though Nautilus had moved much of its manufacturing to China and Taiwan over the years, it still operated a four-building complex in Independence.

“We did the cost analysis of all products as we were going through our due diligence, and I said, ‘Gosh, let’s take a harder look at it,’ ” Sbragia told us in “Back in the USA.” “So when we hit the ground with the purchase in 2010, we brought manufacturing of our free weight products back to Virginia. It made sense for us to build in Virginia. We can build better products with better control of inventory at a lower price than we could build in China. We went through the same process with our elliptical equipment, which is more sophisticated and was built in Taiwan. We found we could build those machines better and have better quality control as well for less money.”

The reshoring has only continued, with treadmill, upright and recumbent bike, and other manufacturing trickling back toward Independence, and the addition of manufacturing of the acquired SportKAT brand. Most recently, last December, the company added a new million-dollar piece of German-made laser equipment to its 300,000-sq.-ft. plant, and with it added between 15 and 20 jobs. “Existing manufacturing associates will also have the opportunity to learn a new skill and earn a higher wage,” said the company.

“Worldwide demand for our products is strong,” said Sbragia. “The addition of the new machinery and personnel will allow us to accommodate growth and produce even higher quality products. Our new 10 series cardio and innovative K2 vertical climber are major contributors to our growth, and the new Trumpf laser enhances our ability to expand both our strength and cardio production capability.”

FutureFuel’s future in Independence County, Ark., keeps looking better, thanks to more than 300 specialty chemical products and more than 1 billion gallons of biodiesel production a year.

Photo courtesy of FutureFuel

“We can compete with anyone in the world,” noted Sean Smith, Med-Fit Systems’ COO. “Our work force averages nearly 20 years’ experience. We are already operational 24 hours a day Monday through Friday. With this latest expansion, we are now adding more employees and a third weekend shift, making our manufacturing facility open and creating American-made products for 140 of 168 hours each week. That is just shy of 24/7 and enables us to efficiently meet the demand for our product.”

Smith continued, “With our laser work now in-house, we can create “inventory on demand”, rather than ordering in bulk. This allows us to cut excess inventory costs and improve our already very strong ‘lean’ ethic.”

Greg Webb, vice president of engineering and a 32-year employee, put some numbers to that notion, saying what used to be a two- to three-week wait on a vendor had been reduced to one or two days by bringing the CNC equipment in-house.

“Morale here at the plant is high as our employees, many of whom have worked here for 30+ years, are seeing the company reinvigorated and investing another 1 million dollars into improved manufacturing,” said Plant Manager Terry Hensley.

Middle America Mojo

Virginia’s Independence is so far southwest that the only thing separating it from the Midwest is a mountain range. But its Middle American ethos, pioneering spirit and yen to make stuff are qualities the rural community decidedly has in common with other Independences — including those found in the geographic middle of the country.

Go to Independence County, Ark., and you’ll find plenty of American ingenuity and industriousness at work. Located two hours from Memphis and the north/south I-55 corridor and only an hour and a half from Little Rock and the east/west I-40 corridor, the county, whose county seat and biggest town is Batesville, is close to the Mississippi River and the Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad. The county passed a ¼-cent sales tax to support the University Arkansas Community College of Batesville in 1998, and has provided similar support to its economic development agency.

Among the growing companies in the area is Bad Boy Mowers, which has invested in plants in Batesville and nearby Melbourne. But food and fuel are the name of the game in the region. ConAgra Foods in April announced a 50-job expansion of its work force in Batesville in order to produce a new line of Marie Callender’s brand breakfast sandwiches.

Sometimes food and fuel work together. Peco Foods, the eighth-largest poultry producer in the U.S., in 2012 had both a $3-million, 50-job project making animal feed in Newark, Ark., and a $10-million, 250-job expansion of its poultry processing operation in Batesville.

Independence, Mo., has been home to the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant since 1941. A high-speed small-caliber-ammunition manufacturing machine at ATK makes 1,200 units a minute.

Photos courtesy of ATK

Turns out some of the waste from poultry processing is perfect for biodiesel fuel production. Not long ago FutureFuel Corp. acquired the 2,200-acre Eastman Co. complex in Batesville. As we documented a few years ago, FutureFuel’s manufacturing facility, has a 30-year history of specialty and custom chemical development and production, first as a member of the Chemicals Division of Eastman Kodak Company from 1976—1993, and then as a member of Eastman Chemical Company from 1994—2006.

Today, in addition to an increasing array of more than 300 chemical products such as bleach activators, herbicides and an anode component for a new lithium-ion battery customer, FutureFuel uses cooking oil waste from the area’s poultry processing plants to manufacture biodiesel. Production has grown from 800 million gallons in 2011 to 1 billion gallons in 2012, and is projected to reach 1.28 billion gallons in 2013, thanks in no small part to the recently reinstated federal $1.00-per-gallon biodiesel blenders’ tax credit.

In late 2011 FutureFuel purchased the vacant White-Rodgers facility in Batesville for warehousing. Its payroll has grown from 400 in 2009 to 500 earlier this year.

“We are thankful that our legislators in early 2013 demonstrated their support for biodiesel through the retroactive reinstatement of the tax credits which play an important role in the biodiesel industry, our nation’s energy supply, and in our national employment,” said FutureFuel President Lee Mikles earlier this year.

Starting Points for Pioneers

Independence, Iowa, located in the Cedar Valley region in the northeast part of the state, is doing its part for national employment. Geater Machining & Manufacturing Company is one of several industrial firms that have expanded there in the past few years; Bachman Tool and Die has also invested $4 million in an expansion in town, and other growing companies include Wapsie Valley Creamery, L&M Radiator and Flint Hills Resources.

Serving the precision machining, finishing, sheet metal fabrication, assembly and finishing operations needs of aerospace, electronic and other high-tech clients since 1962, Geater was awarded tax incentives by the Iowa Dept. of Economic Development for a 25,000-sq.-ft., $5.9-million expansion it finished as part of its golden anniversary in late 2012.

Jack Figg is Director of Commercial Development and Community Affairs for ATK Small Caliber Systems.

Geater has grown from 30 employees in 1965 to 150 today, and is cultivating even more talent through its Exploring Manufacturing Careers Consortium, a partnership with Hawkeye Community College that educates high-school students about the true opportunities in manufacturing.

Independence, Iowa, was founded by some of the first settlers west of the Mississippi River in 1847, and got its name because three commissioners charged with locating and naming the Buchanan County seat happened to do so as the Fourth of July was approaching.

The settler spirit is alive and well in Independence, Mo., too, which not only is Harry Truman’s hometown, but also celebrates during the SantaCaliGon Days Festival every Labor Day weekend its role in all the pioneer trails headed West. The Santa Fe, California and Oregon Trails all counted Independence as their starting line.

Last October, aerospace, defense and commercial products company ATK announced it had been notified by the U.S. Army that it was selected for both the production of small-caliber ammunition and continued operation and maintenance of the 4,000-acre Lake City Army Ammunition Plant (LCAAP) in Independence. The initial contracts period is seven years, and if all award terms are exercised, the contracts would cover a 10-year period.

“Our vision for Lake City reasserts our commitment to deliver safe, affordable solutions that ensure LCAAP remains the most responsive military industrial asset in the world,” said Mark DeYoung, ATK’s president and CEO.

ATK Small Caliber Systems has operated the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant since April 2000. The plant is the primary source for 5.56mm, 7.62mm, and .50 caliber ammunition for the U.S. Department of Defense. It also loads, assembles and packs 20mm ammunition at Lake City for the ATK Medium Caliber Systems division. ATK and the U.S. Army in 2012 on a $12-million upgrade of their industrial wastewater treatment plant.

As might be expected in such an industry, employment has varied, from as high as 2,800 to as low as 600. Today it’s around 2,000, says Jack Figg, director of commercial development and community affairs for ATK Small Caliber Systems. Figg has decades of experience in the steel industry on his resume, and sits on various area economic development councils, including his role as chairman of the board of the Independence Economic Development Council. He says ATK occupies some 3 million sq. ft. of the 4.4 million sq. ft. of space on the LCAAP property.

Through the government’s ARMS (Armament Retooling and Manufacturing Support) commercial leasing model, ATK reinvests cash generated through tenant rentals into the plant for infrastructure refurbishment, energy conservation and environmental stewardship. Figg’s job is to not only manage ATK property, but to get other tenants onto other sections of the property to offset the cost of maintaining the installation. Among those tenants is small business Mast Technologies, which also serves the U.S. Army with small-caliber practice rounds for military exercises and is the site’s next largest tenant … with 30,000 sq. ft.

“He does 12 million rounds a year,” says Figg. “We do 1.9 billion.”

Seventy percent of the ammunition ATK produces there is for training. Figg says government orders are down right now. The firm is hoping to narrow the gap between the ammunition business’s peaks and valleys by going after more commercial ammunition production for hunters and shooters. Hence the company’s recent acquisition of Federal Cartridge, whose facility in Anoka, Minn., was recently expanded.

Figg and his colleagues fully appreciate the area’s work force, 80 percent of whom work in manufacturing. Even so, however, there’s a need to upgrade skills. So ATK is partnering with the State of Missouri’s customized training program and Metropolitan Community College to keep employees’ multi-craft skills on a par with increasingly sophisticated machinery.

Figg notes that the area’s history is replete with craft-oriented industry: Armco Steel, Union Wire Rope, Allis-Chalmers. The city’s history, he says, is a natural fit for journeyman skilled crafts, and is supported by a strong school system. It also fits well with the larger Kansas City metro area’s engineering cluster.

Figg also notes that the region appeals to talented professionals with families, recalling his decades in the steel business:

“When I’d move some guy from the East Coast or West Coast to this location, if he had kids, it was hard to extract him before they were done going through school,” he says. “The quality of life is a very good thing.”

According to Independence EDC chief Tom Lesnak, the city worked with local companies to add over 400 new jobs and invest nearly $30 million in 2012. In addition to retaining the jobs at ATK, the agency is also working to get the word out about the space available at LCAAP, some 13 million in underground industrial space, and the forthcoming Independence Business Park.

Figg says all the areas in Greater Kansas City are seeing inquiries from the manufacturing and industrial sector that they didn’t see five years ago.

“Manufacturing,” he says, “is alive and well in the United States.”

What’s in a name? Everything, if you’re a community vying for name recognition and valuable federal dollars.

Thanks to updated census numbers from the Office of Management and Budget, some U.S. communities were promoted while others were downgraded in December.

More than government grants could be at stake. In the quest to establish a brand identity, official metropolitan and micropolitan area designations could leave some cities seeing red.

According to OMB Bulletin No. 10-02 on Dec. 1, 2009, the “Update of Statistical Area Definitions and Guidance on Their Uses” resulted in the creation of two new micropolitan areas and changes to the titles of 16 metropolitan areas.

Micropolitans are small-town economies clustered around one or more cities of between 10,000 and 50,000 people. With the addition of Marble Falls, Texas, and Weatherford, Okla., the U.S. now has 576 officially recognized micro areas.

The metro area name changes included this one for Austin, Texas: formerly known as the Austin-Round Rock, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area, it will now be known as the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX MSA. Why? Population changes within the MSA resulted in San Marcos being declared a “principal city” of this metro area.

Other OMB changes resulted in Delano, Calif., being named a principal city of the Bakersfield, Calif. MSA; Conroe, Texas, qualifying as a principal city of the Houston MSA; and North Port, Fla., being designated a principal city of the Bradenton-Sarasota MSA.

In North Port’s case, the title change is especially significant. North Port goes from not even being part of the MSA name to being its most populous city and, therefore, first in its official name. The new name? North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota.

While such designation changes may seem rather arcane, they are not lost on people who study place branding and metro economies for a living.

Dr. William Fruth, founder of POLICOM.com and noted expert on metro economies, says that the upcoming 2010 Census will change these designations even more. “They will re-evaluate all of them,” he says. “It will take a while to go through all the numbers, so don’t expect to see any big changes until 2013.”

So how do metro areas and micro areas get re-evaluated in the years between the decennial census counts? Fruth says that OMB bases its analysis on the American Community Survey, a study that is conducted every year to fill in the gaps in counting people living in American cities and counties.

“They created this methodology in 1999 and they don’t change it very often,” he says. “The designation of metro areas and micro areas is pretty much all based on commuter patterns. The biggest city is always listed first in any official title.”

MSA name changes always spark interest, he adds. “For example,” he notes, “Sebastian has passed Vero Beach as a principal city. Outside of Florida, who has even heard of Sebastian?”

Standing Out From the Bland

Fruth also thinks that some census methodology is flawed. “They do population estimates based on building permits and electrical hookups,” he says. “In places like Cape Coral and Port St. Lucie, where many buildings were built but never occupied and where there have been lots of foreclosures, these numbers can be misleading.”

Ed Burghard, who helps the state of Ohio refine its branding message while on leave from his chief product marketer post at Procter & Gamble, says that MSA designations typically have little impact on place branding, but they can help a relatively unknown town get noticed.

“In the case of North Port, it probably won’t help them bring in more capital investment, but the official metro area designation could help them in their marketing if it dovetails with specific marketing efforts they are promoting,” says Burghard.

The competition to stand out from the crowd is fierce. The U.S. has approximately 20,000 cities and 3,400 counties. Getting noticed isn’t easy.

“Branding is all about organizing, differentiation and focus,” said author Bill Baker in his 2007 book “Destination Branding for Small Cities.” “If a city is not differentiated, it is bland — and bland places are often left to compete solely on price points.”

That is why any edge is important. Consider Steubenville, Ohio. Last year at this time, it was part of a little-known MSA called Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH. Thanks to the OMB’s memo on Dec. 1, that area is now known as Steubenville-Weirton, OH-WV.

West Virginia’s loss, it appears, is Ohio’s gain.

And Scottsdale, move over and take a seat. You have officially been replaced by Glendale as part of the Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ MSA.

At a time when virtually every city and county in America is scraping for better name recognition and more federal dollars, even the slightest change in OMB nomenclature can go a long way.

Some 45 federal programs designate funding to MSA-level communities. In fiscal year 2008, nearly $50 billion in federal money went to specific MSAs — or about 11 percent of the distributed federal funds.

According to a recent report from the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings Institution, “the accuracy of the 2010 Census will determine the geographic distribution of a substantial proportion of federal assistance, particularly in the form of grants, over the coming decade.”

An accurate count means more than equitable funding for states and communities, however. Fair congressional apportionment, more intelligent public policy and a potentially stronger economy could all be impacted greatly by the census.

So whether you live in Marble Falls, North Port, Steubenville, Delano or any place in between, getting the census right is job No. 1.