Downtown and around town

There was a ribbon cutting this afternoon at the new office of First Source Asset Advisors. The office manager is Mindy Beier.

In another picture (that did not turn out quite right) I caught the snip.

Ms Beier had been working for National City/PNC Bank before joining 1st Source. Her office is on the left when one enters the building. The Kingman surveyor office is in the back, and there is a room to the right of the entrance that is vacant and for rent. It previously housed the Executor. 1st Source Asset Advisors offers financial advice and products, including stocks and bonds.

Walking down Washington, I stopped in the the Jasper County Microfilm Department, which is in a building that was recently sold. They said that they would be moving but that they did not know where they would be moving to. They might move into the space that the Surveyor's Office previously had in the Court House--that office has moved north of Rensselaer in the old Ceres Solution building. Or they might move somewhere else. They probably need to stay close to the Court House if they are not in it.

Further down the street, there were many signs in the old Murray building--the building that recently had its parapet replaced. It will be open tomorrow as part of the town wide garage sales, but it looks like it will open sometime after that as another flea market. The building itself is still for sale.

In other news, St. Joe's announced an articulation agreement with Ivy Tech. That means that students who complete two years at Ivy Tech will be able to transfer to SJC and graduate in two years rather than three. I recall that five or six years ago various faculty members were telling the powers-that-be that they needed to move on that issue and the powers-that-were sat on their hands while complaining that the faculty were not providing enough leadership for the college. It is good to see that the new administration has acted.

Another event today was a tree planting on Thompson Street sponsored by the Rensselaer Urban Forestry Council, followed by a tree walk. Here the group is examining a ginko tree. Did you know that ginko trees are either male or female, and that most people prefer the males because they are not as messy?

This week saw the greening of Rensselaer--trees are leafing out all over town. The river is up and has flooded part of Weston Cemetery. In the late afternoon the reflections of the trees in the water were very vivid.

There is something unusual about the picture above. Can you figure out what it is?