Changes downtown and elsewhere

A reader of this blog alerted me to another closing. The JC Penney's Catalog store, which runs out of the Anders Water Conditioning building on the corner of Washington and Weston, is slated to close on February 15. I stopped by to find out more and discovered that this is not just a local closing. JC Penney is dropping out of the catalog business and closing all of its catalog outlets. The sign below will soon come down and the long association that Rensselaer has had with Penneys will end.

When we arrived in Rensselaer, Penneys had a store downtown. I do not remember which of the buildings below was Penneys. I remember it had a little balcony. I think at one time the store had the funny little canisters that took money from the clerk up to a central money station, and then the canister would come back down with any change. I remember being fascinated with them as a little kid. (Probably no one under the age of 50 has a clue as to what I am writing about. I could not find any real information about the system on the Internet.) The store may have abandoned the system by the time I came to Rensselaer, but I think there were some artifacts of it still in place.

Another stop downtown was at the Spaw, which I saw from Facebook will be moving. The owner is purchasing the building on the corner of Vine and Cullen, a building that at one time was a neighborhood grocery store. She will trade rent for mortgage payments.

I stopped by the Tractor Supply construction site for the first time in a couple weeks. They have doors, something that was not there the lasts time I was by.

Fair Oaks has another video that is almost like a movie trailer. It is hyping the Pig Adventure.

In some old news that I never got around to mentioning, Monsanto is investing $30 million to increase corn seed production at its Remington plant. That will increase its full-time work force by two according to the item in the Jasper County Economic Development Organization's newsletter.

Finally, I was surprised to see the Road Closed signs on the bowstring arch bridge. I thought it might be there because of ice, but then I noticed that most of the wooden railings were down. I hope this means that the permanent railing will be arriving soon.

Update: One more bit of business news I forgot to mention. The Chamber of Commerce calendar has a ribbon cutting at the new Family Auto Sales on January 31 at 11:00 and an open house Feb 2-9.

Update 2: The Store with no name seems to have settled on This And That Store.
The link referred to in the comment is http://www.hiddengemsindiana.org/2013/01/stouts-shoes-indianapolis.html. It may operate on the same principle, but it is not what I remember. It has a basket, not a canister.