On Wednesday, 11 mayors were asking not what they could do for Honda but what Honda could do for them.

Frank Manus hosted a Mayor’s Round Table at the Greensburg Country Club to inform his surrounding neighbors on the benefits of Honda taking up residence in Decatur County.

“If I wasn’t the mayor of Greensburg, I’d like to know what Honda could do for my city,” he told a room filled with city leaders and representatives.

Manus hosted mayors from Batesville, Rushville, Shelbyville, Lawrenceburg, Aurora, North Vernon, Seymour, Connersville, Richmond and Madison as well as the Director of Planning for the City of Franklin who came as that mayor’s representative.

“You know, to get 12 mayors in one room is amazing. I’ve been to a lot of these things and I’ve never seen that,” Manus said.

The prize that brought them to Greensburg was evident.

“You’ve never dangled jobs out in front of us. You dangle jobs, you’ll pack the room,” Madison Mayor Al Huntington joked.

Manus invited Shane McCoy, senior project manager for Honda, as well as Bill Bryant and Hugh Hagerman of Global Performance to inform the mayors on the economic prospects close on the horizon.

McCoy and Bryant each gave an overview of their roles in the project and how Honda is planning to proceed. The last piece of the presentation, before the speakers opened the floor for questions provided the driving force for each mayor’s attendance.

“We’re giving special consideration to two groups, local businesses and Indiana businesses. We also will offer preferential treatment to minority and women-owned business,” Bryant said. “We’ll encourage diversity in all tiers.”

One of the main concerns for Shelbyville Mayor Scott Ferguson was the factor of distance to Honda in regards to individual cities attracting suppliers.

“There is no requirement for suppliers on how close they are to Greensburg?” Ferguson asked.

McCoy affirmed there is no directive for suppliers or contractors to be within a certain radius to the future plant.

Huntington and a few other mayors offered questions requiring hiring and whether Honda was concerned on saturating the market to the point where it would drive labor costs up.

“There are existing Honda suppliers in this area. We look to hire 2,000 people, but we don’t want to steal people away from them,” McCoy noted.