Meetings and more

The second City Council meeting of May took place on Monday evening. After some preliminaries, there was a public hearing on a proposal on an additional appropriation of $463,672 for the renovation of the old fire house into a new police station. No members of the public spoke and the motion passed with one dissenter.

The Council amended the salary ordinance to allow payment of $15 per hour for a part-time, seasonal worker who can operate light equipment. (This had been discussed at the previous meeting.) Bids were opened for the labor contract to construct the new Watt substation on Bunkum Road. There was only one bid and it was for $499,700. The bid was taken under advisement by the engineers for the City and IMPA, and near the end of the meeting they returned and suggested the contract be rebid because it was about a third higher than their pre-bid estimate. The Council agreed to have the contract rebid.

The Council approved spending about $4500 to have the two water towers inspected this summer. Also approved was the purchase of a small tractor by the utilities. The present tractor is a 1991 model but it will be kept in service. The Council appoints one member the Rensselaer School Board and had three applicants for that position. They chose Christine Phillips who has previously served on the Board. The Mayor's Holiday this year will be July 3. The Memorial Day ceremony at Weston Cemetery will be at 11:00 am.

The Monnett building has sold. The price was $96,500 and after fees and commissions, the City received about $89K. The money will go into a development fund. There was a discussion of whether the money should be earmarked for park use.

 With the completion of the Grace Street project and the micro surfacing, the 2016 road work has been completed.

There was no discussion of the high rate treatment plant but work on the landscaping is almost finished. Last week the bare ground was seeded and covered in hay. There are still some white pine trees to that have to be planted.

 Also on Monday evening the Jasper County Board of Zoning Appeals met to hear a case from Walker Township. A couple had been doing confined feeding of chickens until last year. The building they were using has 8800 square feet and is still in very good condition. They wanted to rent storage space in it but the regulations do not make that a permitted use, so they wanted either a use variance or a special exception; either would work. Their request was granted.

On Saturday Jasper County  Animal Control had an open house that was well attended. I had never been to their facility and was surprised at how small it was. One room was for cats. It was quiet.

 The area for dogs was noisy.

I never found out why an large African tortoise was at the event.

 The closing of SJC continues. Last week the lights in the highway sign were turned off. For some reason the fountain in the reflection pool is still on.

 The final sports activity had come to an end on Saturday when the baseball team fell to Kentucky Wesleyan.

Below are the bricks of the class of 2017 in the sidewalk east of the Core Building.

 On a positive note, the plaza for the Ember's Station Brewhouse is changing day by day.

 New tanks are being installed at the Marathon by the railroad.

The O'Reilly building seems to be finished but is not yet stocked. On Monday the concrete base for the store's sign was poured.

Over the weekend Rensselaer missed two severe storms, one of which went to our north and the other to our south. Both had reports of small tornados.