Pre-empting a vote about whether to open part of the Army’s Newport Chemical Depot to business development, a state board headed by Gov. Mitch Daniels said today that he will travel to the western Indiana depot to make an economic development announcement Thursday.

The morning announcement will involve jobs, according to a news release from Indiana Economic Development Corp.

Newport in Vermillion County had an unemployment rate of 10.8 percent for September — a percentage point higher than the national rate.

For months, talk has swirled about converting the depot, a former Army weapons facility, into something economically viable. For decades, the depot made and stored the deadly VX nerve agent. But operations have been winding down there since the stockpile was destroyed in 2008.

The Army plans to shutter the depot by 2011.

On Nov. 19, the Newport Chemical Depot Reuse Authority is expected to vote on a plan it devised to convert a swath of land at the depot to civilian use.

The plan recommends that nearly 3,500 acres be set aside for potential development, along with 2,400 acres for parkland and 1,200 acres for agriculture.

After the vote, the plan will be sent to the Army for consideration.

It’s unclear how the governor’s announcement will affect those plans.

Also today, in a separate announcement by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. regarding Vermillion County, White Construction Inc. says it will expand its operations in Clinton, creating up to 70 jobs by 2012.

Clinton is about 10 miles south of Newport on Ind. 63.

The company, a contractor that builds wind farms, solar farms, biomass and geothermal power plants, will invest $10.2 million to build and equip a 50,300-square-foot headquarters building.

White Construction already employs more than 130 throughout Indiana, and says it will begin hiring engineers, information technology associates and supervisors later this year.

The state economic development board offered White Construction up to $470,000 in performance-based tax credits and up to $87,500 in training grants. Vermillion County is providing additional property tax abatement.

Up to $145,000 from the state’s Industrial Development Grant Fund also will go to the county to improve water, road and sewer lines at the site.