Rensselaer Adventures

Bricks and blocks

2012-01-28T08:56:00.000-06:00

In a few more weeks there will be little new to see at school construction site on North Melville because the workers are finishing up the exterior. Below is the view from Merritt Street.

The brickwork on the sides seems finished and the plastic shielding has been move to the front. Below is the view from Melville.

The east end of the north wing has the blocks in place, but will probably be the last part of the building to get its bricks.

A missing landmark

2012-01-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago I noticed something missing, an old barn that was falling apart, along the little stretch of 600S (aka Kohley Road) just to the north of Donaldson's. Someone else noticed it as well, and wrote to me that it might be interesting to hear some history. Below you can see what remains.

A couple days ago I asked the owner what had happened. He said that he had burned it. In order to burn a building in the country, you need to notify the fire department, the sheriff's department, and the Rensselaer police department. You also have to assure them that it is a controlled burn.

He waited for just the right day--a weekend to that the burn would not interfer with the people using the parking lot at Donaldson's and a day with little no wind. He got his perfect day after one of our December snows. The fire burned slowly and caused no problems at all.

At one time this barn was used for dairy and had stalls for ten cows. This was at a time when many farmers kept a few cows. Some of the milk could be sold in town, and for a while one buyer was Joe's Produce Mart or Market, a place originally near where Sprigz is now and later east on 114 (maybe where Precision Glass is now?). (Some people reading this blog will recall the places mentioned, and if I get them wrong, please provide the correct information in the comments.) Among other things, you could buy live chickens there. Later his family sold milk to a dairy in Momence, IL that sent a truck out to pick up the milk. The owner remembers the driver with awe because he could swing the eight or ten gallon milk can up onto the bed of the truck with one fluid lift.

He did not recall the old fairgrounds and racetrack that was just to the north of his residence, but said that recently some guys from Illinois came out with some expensive metal detectors and found some Indian head pennies and some silver coins. (If horse racing was hugely popular in our area more than a century ago, it would explain why one of the most famous races horses ever, Dan Patch, got his start in Oxford.)

There was a large red barn near the river at one time, part of a dairy farm. There was also an ice storage house in the area where the quarry now piles it stones. I was a bit surprised to hear two area natives recalling the ice business. The ice industry was a huge industry late in the 19th and early in the 20th century, but it melted away once electric refrigeration became available. Apparently the local ice store was near the current Century Link building. Anyone remember it?

There is a lot of history that has never been written down. If it does not get written down, it will disappear when those who remember it die.

Also in this neighborhood--ConAgra has announced that it is planning to expand it Rensselaer popcorn plant and add 24 new positions by 2014.

And while playing around on the Internet while writing this, I noticed that Zillow now has property values for Rensselaer. (It has been a while since I have been on zillow.com, and the last time I was there it did not have coverage of Rensselaer.) Just put in your address and you can find what your house is worth, and you can also get a map that lets you easily check out the neighbors. I was mildly disappointed to find that my house is the cheap house in the neighborhood.

19th annual elementary school art show

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

The 19th annual Regional Elementary Art Exhibition is on display in the Core Building lobby at Saint Joseph's College. It runs until February 3. Six schools are participating: Van Rensselaer & Monnett Elementary, St. Augustine's, South Newton Elementary, Tri-County Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, and Demotte Christian.

It is fun to see what kinds of art projects each school has assigned. At Lincoln Elementary the students learned that with the right tools (printing blocks), nice looking designs were possible.

This snowman looks worried.

The castle is the sort of thing some of my kids enjoyed drawing.

They also enjoyed dragons and monsters. Why can you be almost sure when you see a picture like this that the kid who did it is a boy?

I was disappointed that there were no tessellations this year. I have been thinking a lot about tessellations lately, and wanted to see what the kids would come up with. The closest thing to a tessellation pattern that I could find was the scale pattern on this very happy fish.

Sewer

2012-01-24T14:45:00.000-06:00

As I was riding my bike along Sparling Avenue today, I noticed an excavator across the field. I went to check it out, following West Washington Street past the trailer court to its end, and was surprised to see that it was being used to lay pipes. The sewer construction project is not just out at the interstate intersection, but it is also on the south side of the river.A trip out Bunkum seemed in order. The preparations for the digging of the sewer line are underway. There are large culverts set out and piles of green pipe. It seems that the crossing of the river will be near the Iroquois Valley Church. There are orange markings and flags everywhere from there west, but none to the east.

It will be something to watch now that the power line project seems mostly done and the school construction project will soon finish the exterior. The power line people have erected a forest (I almost wrote "constructed a maze"--I have spent too much time thinking of mazes recently) of poles north and east of the power house. It will be interesting to see how so many poles in such a small area are going to be used.

What is it?

2012-01-23T12:43:00.000-06:00

What is it and where was I?

Update: Comment 3 was on the money. It is the snow-covered scrap metal at Rensselaer Iron and Metal. I altered the color of the photo to sepia--it brought out the dark-white contrast that I thought was interesting.

Rensselaer Iron and Metal is constructing a new fence along Walnut. In their case, tall fences probably do make for good neighbors.

A wintry morning

2012-01-21T09:29:00.000-06:00

Yesterday for the first day in a very long time I did not leave the house. I kept thinking that I should get out and get some exercise, but it just looked so miserable out there that I never made it. Instead I stayed inside and listened to how the commute from downtown Chicago to ~~Ohara~~ O'Hare Airport was two and a half hours.

This morning looked much more inviting with a blue sky and a bright sun. I find it hard to resist taking pictures of the shadows that the sun makes on a field covered with snow.

The cemetery did not have its usual traffic of early morning walkers.

Some flowers are very hardy, not suffering at all from the cold and snow.

Late on Thursday afternoon I walked across the Talbert Bridge (aka Bicentennial Park Pedestrian Bridge) and there were no tracks. I pulled out my camera to take some pictures of the way the cracks in the boards show through the snow and I got a "recharge battery" message. This morning my camera was working, so a couple days late, here is a picture of the snow on the bridge showing how the cracks show through the snow.

The snow was light and fluffy and had a crunch to it. And when you walk across the bridge, that crunch gets amplified for some reason. Plus the bridge creaks and pops. You really need to check out the bridge when it is cold and snow covered--it is not the same as during good weather.

The picture below could be a scene from a wild area, but it is from the bridge.

A bit downstream from the bridge there is an obstruction in the river that has created a bit of white water. (Do you want to go rafting?)

If you have a snowmobile, today is a good day to get out and enjoy it. The forecast says that the snow will be melting next week.

I have had enough snow. I am ready for spring. And it (or at least the equinox) will be here in only two months.

Chilly morning

2012-01-18T10:04:00.001-06:00

Cold, clear, windless mornings like the one we had today emphasize the steam clouds produced by two area facilities. Below is steam coming from the ethanol plant four or five miles east of Rensselaer in Pleasant Ridge.

Much bigger clouds are produced by NIPSCO's Schahfer generating plant east of Wheatfield, about twenty miles to our north.

It was cold this morning.

Bomber black

2012-01-17T10:48:00.000-06:00

The black sealant coating has been completed on the under-construction elementary school on North Melville and the school looks like it has be decorated in one of the school corporation's colors, Bomber black. This new look will not last long because the masons are busy.

The brick facing is mostly completed on the west side of the building and the masons are gradually working their way to eastward. The picture below was taken about a week ago. The workers are using a plastic enclosure that they move with them as they lay the bricks on various sections of the wall. (You can see it on the right side of the picture below.) With the warm temperatures and high winds today, they may be wishing it was not there.

Once the brick work is done, there should not be a lot of changes visible to people like me who watch from a distance.

Update: Below is a better view of the plastic enclosure that workers are using for construction.

Odds and ends for 1-16-12

2012-01-16T12:00:00.000-06:00

I missed the big snow on Thursday because I had to leave Rensselaer. When I got up in the morning and looked at the radar, I got very motivated to get on the road as fast as I could. It was foggy and dark but not snowing until I got to Indianapolis. I was surprised at how much more snow Rensselaer got than Indianapolis got.

Did you know that Rensselaer has one of thirty road sensors in the state? I think you can see part of it on the south side of SR 114 as you cross I-65 from the east--it is just past the exit ramp coming from the south. You can find the data it is reporting on the Internet at netservices.indot.in.gov/rwis/default.asp. In addition to giving you the temperature of the road, both surface and subsurface, it has air temperature, wind speed, humidity, and dew point. A few of the thirty sites also have cameras, but ours does not.

Each year Saint Joseph's College has a big program in celebration of Martin Luther King Day. This year their decisions attracted some attention from a couple of conservative Catholic blogs, here and here.

Blogging will continue to be erratic. I am working on a project (an adventure of sorts) that has been absorbing a lot of time and effort and it still has a ways to go. Until I am finished, blogging here has reduced priority.

Will they be there in 2013?

2012-01-13T13:00:00.000-06:00

Earlier this week, before real winter arrived on Thursday, I took a few pictures of some buildings that have been discussed a bit recently. Below is the old Strip Joint on the corner of Austin and College. Presently the city owns it, and it will be demolished sometime in the future.

One plan is to replace it by moving the old pump house across College Ave. You can see the pump house on the right of the picture below. Some other people think a better site for the old pump house would be at the Amtrak stop where it could serve as the train shelter. Other people think the best option is to demolish the old pump house. What do you think?

This building has had other uses in the time I have been in Rensselaer and has also sat empty some of the time. I cannot remember what those other uses were and I do not know what the original use of the building was. Does anyone know?

Next door is a house that flooded a couple years ago and has not been inhabited since. It too is now owned by the city and will be demolished to become part of Austin Park.

The old Strip Joint building is starting to fall apart. If you like to take pictures of decaying buildings, check it out.

Dredging on a sunny afternoon

2012-01-10T15:47:00.000-06:00

This afternoon a big machine arrived at Brookside Park so I went over to see what it was doing.

It was cleaning out mud from Brookside Creek. When workers cut down trees and removed the undergrowth from the west side of the creek just north of Bunkum Road about a year ago, I wondered why they were doing that. It seems they were planning ahead.

Are you enjoying our wonderful weather? There are kids playing on the playground equipment in the park. The temperatures may be spring-like, but the fields are still barren. The picture below was taken today just north of Rensselaer.

Days are getting a little longer. It is not completely dark at 5:00.

At the Fendig

2012-01-09T14:16:00.000-06:00

The Prairie Arts Council has a new show until February 3 at the Fendig Gallery at the Carnegie Center. Titled "Triple Visions: Three Emerging Artists," it features work by two recent St. Joseph's College grads and one current SJC student.

One alum, Michael Crowthers, focused on the human body. I vaguely recall either this piece or something similar in a student exhibit a few years ago.

A lot of what he did was in clay, but he also can work in wood.

He is currently curator of the permanant collection at the Anderson Center for the Arts in Anderson, Indiana.

On the wall behind the bust you can see pictures by Andrew Dudich, whose day job is director of the web and IT services for radio station WITY in Danville, IL. Most of the pictures he had in the exhibit were giclee prints, and I had to ask what that was. I felt much better about my ignorance when several people who know more than I do about art could not explain it.

Finally I asked the artist what it was and he was happy to explain that giclee (or giclée) printing is done with an expensive, high-quality printer that uses special inks that make the print look like an oil painting. Dudich gets the effects in his pictures by blending three different photos. In the picture above you can easily see the car, but there are other things also in the picture. In a way, he is doing a variety of digital collage and he gets some very interesting effects. You can see more of his work on his website. Or you can go to Fendig Gallery and take a look. It is an interesting show.

Sewer construction?

2012-01-07T20:42:00.002-06:00

I do not travel by the intersection of SR 114 and I-65 too often, but a couple weeks ago I noticed digging equipment there. On Friday the workers were working on something sewer. I assume that this is the start of the sewer-line extension project. If you know that I am wrong, please correct me in the comments.

This picture was taken from the parking lot of Kentucky Fried Chicken, looking north across SR 114.

The contractor is Grimmer Construction from Highland, Indiana.

A slow start to the year

2012-01-05T22:33:00.000-06:00

I have not posted much lately because I have not seen a lot going on.

Today I discovered a bus stop behind city hall.

The stuff floating in the schoolhouse ditch east of Melville Street is not ice. It is sheets of insulation from the construction of the new elementary school. I suspect much of it blew in over the weekend when we had very strong winds.

I tried to get some pictures showing how much of the back now has its brick facing, but the photos did not turn out well. I suspect that construction is significantly behind schedule--January is not a good month for doing exterior masonry.

The floor tiling in the entrance to the library appears to be completed. There still is some repair work needed on the walls.

Update: The library has started the new year with a new look to its website.

Work on the power line project has resumed. There have been poles positioned along Cullen for about a week and today the first of them was put up next to the city gas department. I thought I could get some action shots, but after they raised the pole to the extent that you can see in the picture below, they set it down again. Apparently something was not quite right. I had other things to do so I left, but later in the day I passed by again and the pole was up and the lines that are on the front-most pole in the picture below had been transferred to the new pole.

I see from Facebook that the Sister Act hair salon that is on Drexel Parkway will be closing at the end of the month.

What else is happening?

Highlights from 2011

2012-01-02T17:01:00.000-06:00

I spent an hour or two looking back on posts from the past year to see what the highlights were from 2011, what items might be of future interest to people. Other people might make some other choices, but most of the things I thought were interesting and important involved construction.

The beginning of the year featured a number of posts about the new Amtrak platform. (See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.) In April the platform was dedicated with an official ribbon cutting.

There was construction and renovation at the hospital all year long, but I did not write much about it. Most of the outside work was done in 2010 and the work inside was hard to see for someone who does not work at the hospital. Posts include those here, here, and here.

Less important, but something I kept reporting, was the slow progress on the Talbert Bridge, which has an official name that I cannot remember. The main span was hoisted into place over the river in late 2010, and then it seemed like it took forever for the finishing touches to be applied. The bridge was open to traffic in late summer, and was officially dedicated in November. Some posts are here, here, here, here, and here.

More important was the construction of the new elementary school on North Melville. After groundbreaking, progress was very slow because of wet weather and a strike, and it was not until the fall that the building began to take shape. I found this frustrating to watch because a lot was happening but I could not get close enough to really see what the workers were doing. Some of the posts are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Not nearly as important, but fun to photograph, were several renovation projects at Saint Joseph's College. See, for example, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The city was busy with several projects this year. I enjoyed watching the work at the sewage lift station, though I never did get inside to get some pictures. See here and here. Another was work on the electrical systems. I did not know it at the time, but I started watching that early with some demolition (see here, here, and here.) After a few minor posts, I was lucky to watch the arrival of our largest utility pole.

One of my better posts this year was on the new offices of the Surveyor and Purdue Extension. Within a few weeks that area was in the news as a series of tiny tornadoes set down in our area in several different storms. I took the time to try to trace the paths of several. See here, here, here, and here.

Rensselaer had municipal elections. I started strong, but did not follow up well.

I had a few favorite posts. A reader tipped me off to the repair of the court house flag pole. I did not do much reporting on businesses, but my visit to Stunt Dawg was enjoyable and educational.

My weirdest adventure this year was not in Rensselaer but on the way back to Rensselaer: my day as a misconnect.

Here is hoping that lots of good things await us in 2012.

Some interesting things from the paper

2011-12-31T16:27:00.000-06:00

The week between Christmas and New Years is usually a bit slow, and this year was no exception. However, I did notice several things that were interesting in the Rensselaer Republican.

The first was that the downtown area is a step closer to being designated a historical area. I guess that is a good thing, though our commercial buildings are not exceptional compared to what is in downtowns of other cities our size. We do, however, have an exceptional court house.

The second was a discussion at the city council meeting of the fate of Pump House number 1 in Iroquois Park. The building no longer seems to be used and renovation of the water treatment plant that is behind it for some reason requires that it go. The plan seems to be to move it across College Avenue to where the old Strip Joint building is now. It looks like there is a potential for some 2012 posts.

The city council meeting last week was the last for the mayor and three council members. As the new mayor takes office, I have some unsolicited advice for him: improve communication with the community. It is good for this blog that there is lousy communication because when I see things happening, I can report them and people have a reason to look at this blog. But it is not good for the citizens to be so in the dark as to what is going on. I suggest a mayor's blog. It is easy to do and much easier to access than the way current information is given at the city website. Minutes of all the meetings could be included. Too much of what is on the city website is in pdf format, which is an unfriendly format for casual readers.

The final item that caught my interest was from the Tuesday paper, a response given by Jasper County Council member Gerrit DeVries to the reporting of the county income tax increase. I thought this answer in the middle of the piece was interesting:

Large corporations such as [NIPSCO, Wal-Mart, ConAgra and Monsanto] do not pay any income tax. Yet, when these new LOITs [Local Option Income Tax] were implemented in 2007, the decision was made to grant the property tax relief from LOIT B as 100 percent distributed to all property owners. So, in spite of corporations paying no income tax, they share in that relief. Their property tax responsibility is being subsidized by Jasper County wage-earners.

It is worthwhile to read the whole thing. And next time we elect members to the County Council, ask the candidates about taxes and whether it really is good that we have so much of the tax burden on income and so little on property. (See previous posts here and here.)

(I would provide links to the paper, but have you ever tried to access the paper online?)

New stop, new shop

2011-12-30T17:23:00.000-06:00

I noticed a new stop sign at the corner of Sparling and Kannal. Last time I was there it was a two-way stop, with no stop on Sparling. Now it is a four-way stop. It may take some getting used to.

On Monday people were moving stuff into the back half of the Horton Building. Today I stopped in the SPAW and asked who their new neighbors would be. The owner said that it would be a consignment shop.

I probably should use a consignment shop to get rid of an old six-inch reflector telescope that I have. I have not used it for years and it takes up a lot of room. I think the mirror is still good, but I have not checked it. Anyone want some adventures with the stars?

I noticed that the third floor of the Oddfellow Building now is home to Performance Nation, a dance studio. They seem to have been there for about a year, but I had not noticed them.

Update: I see on the city's website that the status of the Blacker Park Complex Project, a 60-acre sports complex, is "ongoing." I have never heard of this project. What and where is it?

Is it gone already?

2011-12-27T07:30:00.000-06:00

On Monday afternoon I noticed a Christmas tree on the side of the street. Some people are now finished with Christmas and ready to move on to the next holiday. I prefer to savor the season a while. I find January and February bleak, so extending the Christmas season into January is a good thing. The weather has cooperated--we have our Christmas snow this morning, a couple days late--a white post-Christmas. (The kids may enjoy it, but I hope we will be back to boring brown by the end of the day.)

Traditionally the twelve days of Christmas are the days between Christmas and Epiphany, which is January 6th. The stores, though, are eager to push out the Christmas merchandise so they can get ready for the next holiday, Valentine's Day.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T00:30:00.000-06:00

Have a wonderful Christmas.

Still renovating

2011-12-23T07:47:00.002-06:00

Construction, or rather renovation continues at the Jasper County Hospital. There is nothing happening on the outside, but the inside continues to be a mess. A few weeks ago the reception room was blocked off. Now when you enter the hospital, you can get to the reception desk and the reception room, but a few feet down the hallway there is a wall of plastic.

The south entrance, the entrance that was originally the main entrance, is also blocked off. The sign says that starting Monday, August 1, the south entrance will be closed for several weeks. Many weeks might have been more informative, though perhaps it has been open in the time since. MOW Drivers have nothing to do with Maintenance of Way. They are Meals on Wheels drivers.

The hospital web site gives an update on the current phase of renovation.

On a happy note, yesterday was the winter solstice. That means days are going to start getting longer!!!

Foggy night

2011-12-21T15:10:00.000-06:00

A bit of insomnia got me up in the middle of the night, and I decided to see how well a new camera would capture the foggy scene that the street light was illuminating.

If Christmas vacation had not started for the local schools, there would have been a fog delay. There were fog delays for area schools that are still in session.

Does fog go with Christmas? The poem "The Night before Christmas" has a foggy Christmas eve, but I do not associate fog with Christmas.

Carol and run

2011-12-19T19:33:00.000-06:00

The Cheyenne Running Club stopped by to sing some carols tonight. And then they ran off into the night.

Northern House of Prayer at the Ritz

2011-12-18T09:30:00.000-06:00

It has been a while since I have had a Sunday post on a church, but a week or two ago I noticed what seems to be a new church in Rensselaer, the Northern House of Prayer. It has its Sunday services at the Ritz Theater in downtown Rensselaer.

The Northern House of Prayer is not listed yet in the weekly church directory of the Rensselaer Republican and I could not find an Internet presence. The small sign that is hard to read in the picture above says that the pastor is Mac Howard and services are at 10:00 am on Sunday.

A record for the day

2011-12-15T19:57:00.001-06:00

We got two or three inches of rain yesterday and today the river is at a record high for the date. The USGS gaging station says that the flow this evening is1260 cubic feet a second; the previous high was 879 back in 2008. The average for the day will be less than the 1260, but still should exceed the 879.

Below you can see that the little Iroquois looked like a real river today, not a creek. The picture was taken from the Talbert Bridge in mid afternoon.

Update Friday evening: The river has peaked and is starting to go down, but 2011 will certainly have the record flow for the date. The old high was only 796 cfs in 1972.

Odds and Ends--Dec 2011

2011-12-13T17:17:00.000-06:00

McDonald's on South College has been undergoing renovations for several weeks. I noticed the dumpsters in the parking lot, but did not immediately figure out that they were for McDonald's. The picture below was taken on December 7.

The picture below was from the next day.

A final picture, from this morning. It seems to be a rather extensive remodeling.

I keep checking out progress at the new school on North Melville, but I cannot really tell what is going on and it is hard to get a picture that shows anything interesting. This morning I got a picture of the men working on the west side of the building. It appears that they have begun to lay the bricks and stone blocks for the outer shell. The pink stuff is insulation.

Yesterday I had pictures of a large electrical pole that was erected at Cullen and Clark. It will be part of an electrical line that will run from the substation on North Melville along Merritt Street, and then down Cullen to the power plant. The poles along Merritt are now all in place and wires are strung, though I suspect the wires are guide wires, not electrical wires. The missing part of the project should start soon, the installation of poles along Cullen.

About three weeks ago I noted renovation of the old Perkins Chiropractic office on Cullen. The sign for the new tenant is now up, and if you follow the url on the sign, you can read all about it.

Finally, the Santa house is back in town, this year on the Court House Square. Santa will make a final appearance on Saturday.

The pole arrives

2011-12-12T14:06:00.000-06:00

Last week I had some pictures of workers drilling a hole for a large electrical pole. This morning the pole arrived and was set into place. It came on a very long truck, and was lifted from the truck by a large crane.

The pole was made of laminated wood and was much wider at the bottom than at the top. It creaked and groaned as it bent during lifting. After the pole was off the truck, the truck shortened itself--the trailer could telescope in and out to change length. In the picture below, you can see red and black markings on the side of the trailer. When the retraction was done, everything in front of those markings had been pulled into the back of the trailer.

It took a few attempts to get the belts on the top of the pole, and then the crane lifted the whole pole up and workers maneuvered the bottom of the pole into the hole that was prepared last week.

Notice how high up on the pole the metal fins are.

When the pole was finally set, only a few inches of the top fin were above ground.

Through the whole process, traffic continued to move on the street, though only one lane at a time.

The building in the background below has an interesting history, most of which I do not know. It was originally, I believe, built as a gas station. Have you ever noticed that there were almost no gas stations on SR 114? This one and the building that now houses Rick's Pizza seemed to have been the only ones. On the other hand, there are about a dozen former gas stations that line US 231. More recently, the building was a laundry, and most recently a residence.

A final step was to twist the pole around to make sure it was firmly on the bottom. The plan was to fill the culvert in which it is standing with crushed stone. Another observer could not quite believe that the stone would hold it, but he many not have noticed just how deeply set the pole is.

One of the workers said that the reason for this special pole is that it will have no guy wires.

Updated: I posted too early. When I went back at 2:00 to see if they had finished, the pole was back up out of the hole and resting on the ground, with the crane keeping it upright. I asked what had happened and was told that mud had accumulated in the hole since it was drilled, and they had not been able to get it deep enough. the top of the fin has to be at ground level or below, and you can see in the above picture that it was not. They had had the city sucker truck come and remove the mud, and the hole was now back to 17 feet deep.

This project is just like my home projects--nothing ever goes right the first time.

Update 2: A bit before 4:00 I checked again and the pole had been set back in the hole and workers were dumping gravel around it. The dump truck on the other side of the pole and the loader on this side both were carrying gravel from the pile in the lot that the project has used for storage on the corner of Vine and Cullen. The workers had a vibrator to compact the gravel and seemed to be having some kind of problem. The sun was getting very low and there was still a lot of space to fill.

This was the view from Clark that shows how high the pole is. It will soon be a familiar sight, something we expect to see.

Still another update: I got some addition information about the building in the pictures. It was originally a Shell station run by a man named Alva Page. In addition to the Shell station, he also had the Coca Cola distributorship for Jasper County and much of the building was used for bottle storage. The Pages lived in the house behind the Methodist Church that was demolished in early 2010.

Its next stage of use was as a restaurant, but this was a very short use. Then it became the home of the Rensselaer Bottling Company, which was originally behind the Horton Building (now The Spaw). You can see from the foundation that is still there that it was a very small building. After the Bottling Company closed, it was empty for a few years and then was purchased by the Tonners and became Superior Cleaners. When the Tonners moved in, the place was full of broken bottles and bottles in cases. They hired a man to take the bottles to the Rensselaer dump (which now lies below Bicenntennial Park.) The man took three truckloads of bottles and dumped them. So if you have ever wondered what happened to all the bottles of the Rensselaer Bottling Company and why they are so rare, they lie buried and probably smashed somewhere under Bicentennial Park.

The gas station that is now Rick's Pizza was originally a Sinclair station owned by a man named Bunker Hill who lived in the house behind the station. Between its life as a gas station and as a pizza parlor, it was a restaurant for a while.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a history of all the buildings in Rensselaer?

Getting ready for spring

2011-12-10T18:31:00.001-06:00

On Thursday I noticed a hill in Brookside Park. It was not the much needed sledding hill, which would be a nice addition for the winter. Rather it was a pile of wood chips, part of preparation for next spring.

The main playground area has lost most of its mulching and needed a new load of chips. The first pile was joined by a second, and on both Thursday and Friday workers were placing the chips around the equipment.

They were still not finished on Saturday. If the mulch was from the city's collection of downed trees and branches, I contributed to the these piles.

As the cold and short days of winter keep us inside, it is nice to have reminders that in a few months the weather will be warmer and kids will again be playing on this equipment.

There is still some activity in the park. This morning I saw the runners of the Rudolph 5K Run (formerly called the Santa Shuffle) go past my house. The race started and ended at Brookside Park. The runners looked cold. I had no desire to go out and take a picture. (Here are some photos from last year, from 2009, and from 2008.)

It took a couple of extra trips, but I finally found the geocache in Brookside Park (as well as one along Owen Street). It required a bit of thinking outside the box. If you cannot find what you are looking for, maybe you are looking for the wrong thing.

Speaking of geocaching, Brian Capouch mentioned it last week when he introduced the presentations of his software engineering class at Saint Joe. I think his class set out the geocache at that can be found at SJC. However, the class ultimately decided not to do much with geocaching--the company that runs the geocaching website is interested in making money from the activity, and Brian is an open-source guy. His class investigated Independence Cemetery in ~~Barkley~~ Gillam Township, and as a result, it may now be the best documented pioneer cemetery in the state. I was hoping the www.pastfinder.com website would have information on the applications the class developed to bring the cemetery on-line, but it was not there when I checked.

Higher taxes

2011-12-08T11:23:00.001-06:00

From nwi.com:

County officials recently approved hiking the county's incometax rate to 3.114 percent, up from 3.05 percent. The new rate tookeffect Dec. 1.

Combined with Indiana's 3.4 percent state income tax rate,Jasper County residents now pay 6.514 percent of their income instate and local income taxes.

Jasper County has the second highest county income tax in Indiana, with only Pulaski County higher. Our county income tax is almost as high as the state income tax. I suspect that that both Pulaski and Jasper counties have among the lowest property taxes in the state. I think that the county has placed too much of the tax burden on income and not enough on property and that division of the burden probably tells us who has political clout in this county.

Remington news

2011-12-07T13:09:00.001-06:00

A recent comment mentioned that there was a new Dollar General store under construction in Remington. On a recent trip south I detoured though town and found the site on the south east side of the intersection of US 231 and US 24.

The town of Remington site has a better picture and also information that the targeted completion date is December 20 (seems pretty ambitious) with a grand opening for January 19, 2012.

Getting ready for the big pole

2011-12-05T11:53:00.001-06:00

This morning there were several trucks tying up traffic at the corner of Cullen and Clark. One of them, not pictured, was a city truck trimming branches, probably to get ready for the utility line that will run along Cullen to Merritt. I could not quite make out what the other two were doing.

A view from a different angle was more revealing. NG Gilbert, the contractor for the utility line, had brought in bigger equipment from another contractor to bore a huge hole. The drill bit that you see on the truck to the left in the above picture is what they use for the tall poles that they have been installing along Merritt. It was dwarfed by the drill bit of the other truck.

Below you can see the workers pulling up the drill bit. They move it away from the hole and then spin it to remove the clay that they are taking out of the hole. I helped my son do something very similar a few months ago, but with a two-man post-hole driller.

A city worker who is a neighbor of mine said that tomorrow they are scheduled to set an 85-foot tall fiberglass utility tower with the footings that they are preparing today.

Invasive shrubbery

2011-12-05T09:00:00.000-06:00

Over the Thanksgiving holidays my son mentioned that the bushes growing at the western edge of Weston Cemetery were honeysuckle bushes. They are easily distinguished in the fall because they maintain green leaves longer than just about any other tree or shrub.

It is a pretty bush and I can see why people have planted it as an ornamental.

Unfortunately, it is also highly invasive and threatens native plants whenever it gets established in a wooded area. When my son mentioned honeysuckle, I immediately remembered reading calls for volunteers to help eradicate it from various nature preserves in our area. The only other plant that seems as much hated by the people trying to restore native plants is garlic mustard.

The war against the invasives is probably fruitless. The topic of invasives, however, is fascinating. A recent book, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, is on my list of books I want to read. Did you know that there were no earthworms in the upper Midwest before Columbus? Their arrival reshaped American forests because the worms ate the leaf litter. The author asserts that the Columbian exchange "was the biggest event in the history of life since the death of the dinosaurs." How can you not be intrigued by a book discussing something as important as that?

Floor

2011-12-01T11:43:00.001-06:00

I stopped by the library today and noticed that there was construction (or demolition?) in the entry way and bathrooms.

Some of the tiles had buckled, and they tried to get estimates on replacing the bad tiles, only to be told by multiple contractors that they could not fix the problem area, and that the only way to get it fixed was to replace the entire area.

My home repairs are often like that. What on surface seems like it should be a small task often ends up being much more involved that anticipated, and that is why I hate home repairs.

I have not been posting much this week and do not be surprised if the light posting continues for a while. It is a combination of not much happening in my world and a desire to focus on some other things. A year ago I felt bad when I missed a day. Now I do not.

What happened to November? It sure went by quickly.

Geocaching adventure

2011-11-28T09:00:00.000-06:00

Some of our Thanksgiving guests had smart phones that had GPS receivers, and they thought it would be fun to do a little geocaching around Rensselaer. (Geocaching, for anyone who does not know, involves searching for containers based on the GPS coordinates and also any hints that the hider provides. It is a bit like an Easter egg hunt for adults. If you do not have a GPS unit, and I do not think a car GPS unit is sufficient, you cannot take part in the fun. For more info, see the official geocaching site. A few clicks can get you to a map of geocaches in the Rensselaer area.)

Our first search did not go well. There is supposed to be a small cache in Brookside Park, but when we got to the coordinates of the cache, we could not locate it even using the hints. Our search at second site, in Bicentennial Park, was successful. We found the cache, which is an old army ammo box. It had a register for people to sign and also junk. You can add to the junk if you wish, or you can trade your items for those in the box (unless the directions tell you something different.)

Anyone can register and set up a cache. The folks at the Rensselaer branch of the Jasper County Library have put a tiny cache on the library grounds. It you do not have the coordinates, I doubt that you would ever find it. Even with the coordinates, we looked at the hint before we located it.

A little digression: across the street the gazebo in Hal Gray Park has been decorated with lights and looks very nice at night. However, I had to laugh at the power cord for the lights, which crosses the sidewalk and connects to an outlet on the power pole.

Back to the hunt: we also found two caches that were south of Rensselaer, one on the Saint Joseph's College campus and another to the east of the college. The second one was in a really clever hiding spot--a place that is easily accessible but that will not be bothered or found by someone accidentally.

Have you ever done any geocaching? What did you think of it? My view of Easter egg hunts is that it is more fun to hide than find, and I think the same about geocaching.

Shopping madness--updated

2011-11-24T22:33:00.001-06:00

I ventured to the early Black Friday sale at Walmart Thursday night and was amazed at the size of the crowds. The Walmart parking lot was full, as was the Strack & Van Til lot as far north as Arni's Pizza. Inside the store the aisles were so full of people that it was hard to maneuver, and the checkout lines were long.

Only some of the items went on sale at 10:00 on Thursday night, and though my shopping partner and I got there just a bit after 10:00, the item we were looking for was already gone. The items that were to go on sale at midnight were still wrapped in cellophane, and there were lines forming for some of those items even though it was not yet 10:30.

If you venture out looking for bargains, I hope you have great success.

Update: I heard about another line this morning (Saturday), the line in front of one of the payday loans before it opened.

Recent acquisitions

2011-11-21T18:57:00.001-06:00

The Jasper County Historical Society is between exhibitions right now, so it is featuring recent acquisitions and resources. The curator had not yet marked the first recent acquisition that you see when you enter the building, a water fountain (bubbler?) that was once in the Jasper County Court House.

In the entry way is the old cancelling machine that was once in the Saint Joseph's College branch of the Rensselaer Post Office. The sign says it was discarded in 2003; when do you think it was put into service? It looks like it served for many years.

Just inside the main room is old laundry equipment from 1890. I remember wringer washing machines from my childhood, but they were not this old. It was donated by Leon Biggs. Was he the owner of the auto junk yard that was a bit south of McCoysburg? I remember it as being a really interesting place.

The plaque from the old jail that was demolished in the summer of 2010 is another acquisition. It is not especially old, but it does represent a part of area history.

Some acquisitions are small. The truck commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Jasper County Fair and comes with its box.

Another anniversary is represented in the uniform of the fife and drum corps that was formed to celebrate the country's bicenntennial in 1976. A plaque at the fairgrounds also recalls this short-lived organization.

There are also many signs in the museum highlighting the various resources that the museum has. I thought their collection of scrapbooks was especially interesting. Some were donated and others were made by the historical society in past years.

I asked what sorts of things that the society would like to see donated. The number one request was for old pictures of buildings or people. You do not have to donate the original--the society would be happy for a copy and is hoping to get a scanner (another possible item that one could donate) so that they could scan in pictures for people who want the original copies.

Speaking of old pictures, the Remington Historical Society had a picture of downtown Remington from about 1940 on their Facebook page a few days ago. I think every building in that picture with the exception of the water tower is now gone. It is a reminder that sixty or seventy years ago life in small towns was very different from what it is today.

There is a Lake Village Old Photo page on Facebook. Maybe the Jasper County Historical Society could encourage something like that as well.

More Pictures--updated

2011-11-18T20:43:00.000-06:00

Here are some more pictures in the spirit of yesterday's post.

Below is the Building Trades house as of October 17. A picture of its status as of Oct 25 is here.

Yesterday, November 17, the students had completed the roof and were working on siding and a garage door.

I like to keep track of new businesses, but I totally missed a new farm equipment dealer that arrived in June. A branch of McAllister Machinery Company is now located just south of Castongia's John Deere. The company has several locations throughout Indiana. Their primary business seems to be heavy construction equipment, especially that made by Caterpillar. The Rensselaer branch is not in that division, but in the ag division. It does not sell Caterpillar equipment.

The building they are in once housed Sharp Electric.

The driveways and parking lot for the new K-2 school on North Melville were paved today. They put up signs to tell people to stay out, and then they make an inviting road into the site. What a mixed message.

The new storage building at 1003 N Melville that was pictured here now has a name: C&C Warehousing. An ad in today's Rensselaer Republican announced that rental space was available in the building and that it was especially suited for boats and RVs.

Update: I did not notice that the city was demolishing a third house for power station expansion. (At least I assume that the city is doing this). I cannot quite remember the house other than it was big, old and not in good shape. It was at 450 N Van Rensselaer, adjacent to the library and across the street from the power house.

Mid-November picture dump

2011-11-17T07:30:00.000-06:00

It's time for another meandering post that uses a bunch of pictures I have taken recently.

A few weeks ago the city was digging near the lift station east of Weston Cemetery. They were digging last winter, as well. I have not heard what the purpose of any of this digging is. (Not the best way to start a post, is it?)

This morning I noticed that iron fencing had been installed in tiny Hanley Park. It was not there a few days ago.

I also noticed a sign I had not seen before at the Medical Arts building where Washington meets McKinley. Many changes are happening in the medical community. I do not know if this--the Pinnacle association--is one of those changes or not.

I visited the Community Health Fair at SJC on Tuesday. The ballroom was arranged differently this year; blood donations were on one side, and the health fair on the other. The blood collector for this event is the Indiana Blood Center. Some of the other blood drives in Rensselaer are done by the Red Cross. There probably is an interesting story as to why there are two groups that do blood drives here, but I do not know it.

I took all the tests were available and found no real surprises. I was happy that I have the bone density of a healthy young female.

I talked a bit to the people from the KV Fitness Center from Demotte, which I was surprised to learn is part of Jasper County Hospital. The people at Fairmeadows Home Health Care seemed to remember me and said that they were dong well at their new location.

Still in the health area, the office of Randall Dermatology on North McKinley is being remodeled, probably to make it look less like an old gas station. The big windows are being replaced with much smaller windows.

Also being remodeled is the old Perkins Chiropractic office on N Cullen. Someone told me about this at the bridge dedication, and said it would be reopening in 2012. Someone else told me that the Rensselaer Republican had had a story on this, but I missed it.

Various construction projects continue. I liked this picture of the concrete pipes that will become part of the storm sewer system. They were next to the basketball court in Columbia Park last weekend. The pipes are made in Lowell, and the contractor is Gatlin from Griffin.

The storage shed on North Melville had six doors hung and four to go a few days ago. They are all in place now.

A "No Trespassing" sign greets visitors at the school construction site on North McKinley, which means that I cannot go places I was going before. The workers were building up the roads and parking areas with limestone.

SJC enclosed their new emergency generator and fuel tank. I thought it was an eyesore until I noticed the decorative finials on the left one (they have now also been added to the right fence), and that changes everything. (You may have to look hard to see them.)

Occasionally I take pictures of the quarry intending to do a post showing how it changes over time. Unfortunately, I can never find the older pictures to make the comparison. The quarrymen keep taking a lot of stone out, and I think the lowest level was not there a year or two ago. If you look carefully, you maybe see where a vehicle is drilling blast holes to move the cliff face back a bit further.

I mentioned the new tattoo place a few weeks ago. It had its grand opening on Halloween night and now has much better signage. It also has a name, Oddities, that might have served as the title to this post.

Bridge dedication

2011-11-16T07:30:00.000-06:00

The Bicentennial Park Bridge, which I have referred to in many posts as the Talbert Bridge, is now officially open. The dedication ceremony was held on Tuesday.

The people started gathering twenty minutes before the ceremony.

As more people gathered, they moved to the north end of the bridge. Shortly before eleven, the mayor arrived.

Then everyone walked over the bridge to the south side, where the official ribbon cutting took place. I was not positioned well to get a picture of that--I was in the back of the crowd, so I could not see it.

The dedication ends an ongoing stream of posts that began even before this blog came into existence. I never expected when I did my first post on this subject that it would take over three years to come to a conclusion. The bridge is meant as a part of a trails system, so perhaps the development of trails will provide new subjects for this blog.

Many of the people who attended parked in the new parking lot for Bicentennial Park. Last week park workers were using the broken asphalt from the recent street repairs to surface it. The new shelter now has a name, the Ervin L.Marlin Sr Picnic Shelter. It was made possible by donations from a member of the Marlin family.

The dedication was the first publicly scheduled use of the new shelter. Donut holes and hot chocolate were on the menu.

A press release for the dedication can be found here. (It is a pdf). There were about fifty people at the event, and almost all of them were on the bridge at the same time, which gave it a really nice bounce and showed that it is safe. There were many people who contributed money or time or expertise to making this bridge possible, and only some of them attended.

Evening

2011-11-15T07:39:00.001-06:00

Yesterday afternoon workers in the 69K line were trying to finish up work on a pole as the sun was setting. Evening comes early in November.

The line of poles has reached US 231.

(So far this week I do not have much to write about, and I liked this picture.)

On the Court House Square

2011-11-14T07:30:00.000-06:00

Here is what was happening on the Court House Square at 8:50 in the morning on Saturday.

It is time to put away the sign.

Downtown Fowler

2011-11-12T08:30:00.000-06:00

A few days ago I had some pictures of the Fowler town park. While I was in Fowler taking those pictures, I also took pictures of their downtown, which is mostly along a three block stretch of Fifth Street. The downtown is not in the center of the town--most of the residential area is to the north and east. The downtown still has a lot in it, though some of the retail business has moved to an area to the southeast.

One of the highlights of the downtown, at least according to the Benton County: Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory, is the Fowler Theater, which is one of five Benton County structures on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1940 in the Art Moderne style and is still in use.

Continuing to the east along the north side of Fifth Street, the buildings are mostly from the 1890 to 1900 period and are mostly listed as in the Italianate style. Fowler itself owes its existence to the arrival of the railroad in the 1870s. The town got a major boost when the county seat was moved from Oxford to Fowler. It is named after Moses Fowler, a man who lived and made his fortune in Lafayette, but who owned a great deal of land in Benton County and was active in its affairs.

The only one of these buildings that gets special notice in the Benton County: Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory is Neoclassical commercial building built in 1910, which I believe is this three-story structure.

The Benton County: Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory also likes the Carnegie library, which has has a modern extension. The various county inventories always seem to like the old Carnegie libraries.

On the south side of Fifth Street, the business district begins on the east with a small but bizarre building that one cannot miss. It Fraser and Isham Law Office building, built in 1896. The windows in the front have curved panes of glass.

This is the other building in the downtown that is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Next to it is the Fowler State Bank building, constructed in 1900 and still in use as the Fowler State Bank. It is in the Romanesque Revival Style.

There is nothing else too exciting on the south side of the street. I thought the Swope Building, Queen Anne style from 1895, was interesting, but the Benton County: Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory lists it as non contributing, which probably means that it has had too many changes and no longer meets their criteria for a historic structure.

Below you see more of the south side of Fifth Street.

The railroad that gave Fowler its start is now part of a small feeder line, the Kankakee, Beaverville & Southern Railroad. Unlike Rensselaer, which has a rail line on which most of the rail traffic is through traffic, all the traffic on this small railroad is local, picking up or dropping off cars at businesses or elevators.

There is a lot more to Fowler and Benton County, but I had to get to an event and did not have time to explore more. Maybe I will get back some day and find out more.

Seasonal maintenance

2011-11-11T06:30:00.000-06:00

I heard some banging when I was near the Rensselaer water tower yesterday and then noticed a man at the top.

I was lucky enough to encounter a city official who told me that the man at heights was doing seasonal maintenance. The water tank has anodes to prevent corrosion, but they have to be taken out during the winter to prevent them from freezing. I do not claim to understand the process, but maybe this piece will make sense to you.

Providing water, which we mostly take for granted unless we live in Goodland, is a lot more complex than most of us realize.

Outside my door

2011-11-10T19:32:00.001-06:00

As I left my house this evening, I was greeted by fallen leaves and fallen snow. And also a full moon near mighty Jupiter.

Most of the leaves are down, but it still does not look or feel like winter.

Merritt Street project

2011-11-10T09:44:00.001-06:00

The installation of power line poles along Merritt continues. Yesterday I passed by as they were moving one of the poles off the trailer that they used to transport it.

In the above picture you can see the old power line on an old poles. As the new poles are installed, the old ones are being cut shorter or taken out and the lines are attached to the new poles--you can see this below. I asked it these lines would be replaced when the new lines are installed at the top of the poles and was told that they would not be replaced. The new poles will carry both the old and new lines. (Only time will tell if that is correct.)

In the picture above, the old pole remains next to the new pole, but has had its top cut off and the electrical lines moved to the new pole. The worker I talked to said that the shortened old pole would eventually be removed.

The new poles are spaced further apart than the old ones were, and I wonder if some of the old poles will remain in the spaces between the new poles.

Some pictures from Fowler

2011-11-09T11:29:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I visited Fowler and while there I checked out their city park. Fowler is pretty well contained north of US 52 and the railroad track, but there is a little bit of it that squeezes out to the south, and the park is in that little extension. It features a pond with a fountain and a view of windmills.

There were no windmills the last time I was in Fowler and visited this park. That was for a Fourth of July 5K race which started and ended at this park. Near the end of the race I was trying to beat a grade school girl and she was determined not to let an old man beat her. She won our duel. I do not feel too bad about the defeat because in the years after she went on to star on West Lafayette's cross country team. She should be in college now--my last previous visit to the park was a long time ago.

It is even longer--twenty to thirty years--since I last visited their swimming pool, which was and probably still is the home pool of the Benton Eels Swim Team (BEST). Every other year the Rensselaer Summer Swim Team would have a meet there, and they probably still do. I do not remember much about those meets, but am pretty sure the pool did not have this slide at the time.

I wonder if the slide competes with the diving board. One thing I noticed at the Rensselaer pool is that a lot of kids were doing a lot of interesting dives last summer. They kept challenging each other, so even little kids were doing more than a standard head-first dive.

Election Day

2011-11-08T13:23:00.001-06:00

Did you vote today? There are only three contests contested, the office of mayor and two council seats.

Clauss Bakery is for sale if you are interested in running a bakery. They have the sign in the window.

Lots of excitement over in Goodland--the water tower there collapsed. Check the Goodland Facebook page for updates. Apparently water has been restored, but is under a boil order. Bottle water is available at the town hall.

Update: Winners in the contested Rensselaer races were Wood for mayor, and Overton and Watson for council. Watson won by a mere 13 votes.

Pop tabs, myth and reality

2011-11-07T08:30:00.000-06:00

I stopped by the annual Van Rensselaer PTA Craft show on Saturday to see what was happening. I noticed that the school was collecting pop-can tabs for the Ronald McDonald House and was amazed by how many they had collected. (I assume that the can if full of only tabs.)

Several years ago a student at SJC told me that the tabs were made of a special alloy and worth much more than the rest of the cans. An Internet search quickly told me that this was not true. Doing the math using the numbers in the snopes article, it takes 28 tabs to earn a penny.

Why then does Ronald McDonald House collect them? One of the Ronald McDonald House web pages says. "Although the whole aluminum can is valuable, the tab is much cleaner and easier to collect in large quantities than whole cans." Another says, "Collecting pop tabs is a great way to teach kids about philanthropy and the importance of recycling...." However, Snopes contends that "a lot of really nice people end up sadly disappointed when they eventually discover all their hard work pretty much went for naught."

People like to be useful and to help people in need but often are more concerned about the symbolism of what they are doing than the actual results. The purpose of some of the charities we see is more to make the donors feel good about themselves than to actually help people in need. (I have nothing against Ronald McDonald House. I used their house in Indianapolis many years ago and found that they provide a very useful and valuable service. They deserve support. And they are honest about what they are doing on their website.)

I wonder if the rumor that tabs had special value is an echo from a time in which they did. A couple years ago I noticed this can along a road in Nevada. It could have been there twenty or thirty years--the area is desert, so the process of decay and decomposition are very slow. The can is made of iron while the tab is aluminum. Are you old enough to remember them?

If you are as old as I am, you remember even an older form of tab, the kind that pulled off the can. Those tabs are still around. I had a conversation with a man in Martinsville a couple months ago in which he told me that he had bought a metal detector in hopes of finding hidden treasure. He said about all he ever found were the old aluminum tabs buried three or four inches underground. He said they were everywhere.

After leaving the craft fair, I stopped in the Jasper County Historical Society museum to see what they were doing. The quilt show was gone and a new installation featuring recent acquisitions and resources was being prepared. I will try to remember to go back in two weeks to see it completed. (The museum is open the first and third Saturday of every month.) I reminded them that they should do a show featuring Indian artifacts from the area, and they are considering it. I also suggested a pioneer craft show, but the only pioneer craft that I can think of that is still practiced is basket making. What kind exhibits would you like to see?

Speaking of Indian artifacts, today is the bicentennial of the Battle of Tippecanoe, which took place northeast of Lafayette. It was historically important because it broke the power of the Eastern Indian tribes. We do not have any important Revolutionary War or Civil War historic sites in Indiana, and this battlefield is the only one near us that has national significance. Read more about it here. Update: The Journal and Courier has had good coverage; for example, see here.

Fast construction

2011-11-05T09:20:00.001-05:00

There are a number of construction projects in town as recent posts have noted. The one that changed the most this week was the storage building on North Melville, which got its skin. There may not be much left to finish except the installation of the doors.

This roof on this building has no overhang. Does the rainwater just run down the sides of the building, or does the metal roof project it outwards enough so the overhang is not needed?

The paving crew that was working on bits and pieces of many Rensselaer seems to have finished. The Melville Sewer Project is working on Thompson and Elm. The walls keep rising on the new k-2 school. And there are poles either installed or on the ground from Melville to McKinley.

I feel I have had too much about construction recently and I need to have something else for balance. So here is a Halloween picture that I would have posted before Halloween if I had seen it then. I do not recall ever seeing this method of decorating pumpkins.

Changes in parks

2011-11-03T11:46:00.001-05:00

Yesterday workers were removing the backstop fence of the ball field in Iroquois Park. The ball field has not been useable as a ball field since the water treatment plant was built many years ago, and the upcoming renovations to the plant will encroach further on the ball field.

This morning I noticed that topsoil had been stripped off what appears to be a future parking lot at Bicentennial Park. Also on the agenda for this fall is a some kind of trail connecting the bridge to Washington Street.

Melville adventures

2011-11-02T09:30:00.000-05:00

Melville Street is the happening place in Rensselaer these days. The largest construction project currently underway in Rensselaer--the new k-2 school--sits on its north end. There was a crane at the site on Tuesday--I have not had a post about cranes for quite a while--I think the last one was setting the bridge.

Last week a machine was installing curbs for the driveway and parking lots. Over the weekend I wandered a bit closer to the building to get some pictures. The walls on the northern wing seem to be about as high as they are going to get.

But the walls on the southern part of the building are only a few feet high. The wall behind them looks like it is part of a fortification.

A bit to the south and on the other side of Melville, a storage building is taking shape. The concrete floor is finished and the roof trusses are in place.

Across the street from this construction, a contractor is installing poles for a line that will connect the Melville substation with the city power plant. My previous report that this line would run down Elm seems to be wrong, and the update that it would run along Merritt seems to be correct. You can see that the new poles are much taller than the old poles. I wonder if that is the reason that a contractor is installing them rather than the city electrical department. Perhaps their equipment is not designed to handle poles this long.

You can see two bucket trucks in the background. I was hoping to get a picture of them forming a letter of the alphabet, but I never got one.

A final bit of construction along Melville is south near the river. The extension of the Melville storm sewer line has begun, and Stewart Drive is the first street to be torn up.

Riley Read 2011

2011-11-01T07:30:00.000-05:00

This year the annual Riley Read was held at the Rensselaer branch of the Jasper County Library with refreshments provided by the Little Cousin Jasper Committee. Jane Lord read poems that had a Halloween theme such as Little Orphant Annie, The Raggedy Man, and Nine Little Goblins.

The weather was wonderful, but the attendance was disappointing. There were very few kids, maybe because they were all getting ready to go begging for candy in the neighborhoods.

Did you have a lot of kids stop by? We had pirates, witches, vampires, cats, princesses, skeletons and two creative boys who came as boys.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T10:53:00.000-05:00

I had not taken pictures of the many Halloween decorations around town until I saw this one, which seemed to be just right for today's post. The house is listed as the David Nowells House in the Jasper County Interim Report: Indiana Historic Sites and Structure Inventory. It was built around 1890 and is in the Queen Anne style.

Another house I noticed last week is on Thompson and is getting a pitched roof. This house was on a open house tour last May and the reaction from those who saw it was that it needed major renovation despite being fairly new. It had a flat roof and had suffered considerable water damage from leakage. Flat roofs have proven to be a bad idea in Rensselear.

It appears that a second house near the power house met its demise last week. This week the dumpster, backhoe, and foundation are all that is left.

The trees are still very colorful. Rensselaer Urban Forestry Council is touting the seven or eight honey locust trees they planted in Milroy Park.

Next year they may drop enough leaves to require the services of the green machine that the city uses to vacuum leaves.

Reaching for the Heavens on a Sunday afternoon

2011-10-30T15:19:00.000-05:00

I got a tip this afternoon (Thanks, Sheila!) that there was a man at heights on the Court House. I was able to get there before he finished climbing down the flagpole.

You might notice a large ball hanging from the man, who is a professional flag pole climber. It is the ball that was on top of the flagpole. This man was hired to take down the ball, fix it so the flag chain worked properly, and then put it back.

After he got down he disappeared into the Court House. There is a small door on the roof that provides access. I waited a while, than went home for half an hour. When I came back, he was climbing back up. Below he is placing the ball back on the top of the flag pole.

Below you can see what this looked like in perspective. You can hardly tell that there is a man up on the flagpole. By the way, the wind was blowing briskly at ground level, so it must have been quite strong on the flagpole.

You may wonder how a person climbs a flag pole. It looked a lot like the way that people ascend a rope using the sit-stand method. I have never done it, but Desert Survivor is very good at it.

I left before they got the flag up, and on the way home I noticed that the sign on Tucker Realty was being taken down.

I stopped and saw Deanna, the owner of Tucker, and asked what was happening. She has closed Tucker and is now working for Jenkins.

Working on the roof

2011-10-29T11:53:00.000-05:00

This past week the building trades class took advantage of the nice weather to work on the roof of the house they are building on Vine Street.

Paving

2011-10-28T11:33:00.000-05:00

There are a number of paving projects underway in the city. Yesterday a crew was ripping a couple of inches of asphalt from North Front Street. Today they have moved on to other streets and Front is open, though with a bumpy surface.

A new layer of asphalt was being applied to the roads in the old section of Weston Cemetery this morning.

Annual CDC Dinner

2011-10-27T14:21:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday night CDC Resources, Inc held it annual dinner at Camp Buffalo near Buffalo, Indiana.

This is the second year in a row that the event has been held at this location. The camp has a new dining hall that nicely accommodated the roughly 200 people who attended. Quite a few were from Rensselaer.

The goal of CDC is to enrich the lives of people with disabilities. It serves 500 people in a five county area. More than 150 of those are in Jasper County. Other counties served are White, Carroll, Newton, and Benton. Its main office is in Monticello.

One of its changes in the past year has been the transfer of its Playscape Childcare facility in Rensselaer to the Tri-County Bible Church, which now operates the service as Treasure Seekers. It still has three faces in Rensselaer: the Jasper Village residential facility on Sparling Ave, Jasper Junction resale shop north of town, and it Day Services and Heartland Employment services on the far east side.

The featured speaker was Michelle Fischer from Lafayette. Cerebral palsy keeps Ms Fischer in a wheel chair most of the time, but she is an articulate speaker and she moved the audience with reflections on her story. She does podcasts or audiocasts for ARC of Indiana that look at how disabled people deal with life.

ARC of Indiana has been trying to get people to blog about disabilities. Here is a link to some blogs they hope will flourish.

Gas Department Open House 2011

2011-10-26T09:01:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday afternoon the city gas department held another open house. I went early (I was the first to sign in!) and was followed by quite a number of other older people.

One of the messages that the gas department wanted to get across is that if you are doing any digging in your property, you should call 811 and have the area in which you are digging checked for gas, water, electrical, telephone/cable, and sewer lines. They had on display a gas pipe that had been ruptured by someone who did not call. They said that it was raining when this one was ruptured or else it might have been a lot uglier.

There were a number of other exhibits available as well. The Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District, which is headquartered in Monticello and serves Newton, Jasper, Benton, White, Pulaski, and Carroll counties, was there with free recycled toothbrushes. (It is not what you think--the toothbrushes were made of recycled #5 plastic, so when you are done with it, you can recycle it again. At least you could if Rensselaer recycled #5 plastics.)

They also showed the life cycle of a pop bottle. It goes to the bottling plant not as the big bottle on the right, but as the much smaller bottle with the blue cap below. The smaller bottle is then expanded to become the big bottle--it is much easier to ship the smaller bottles if they are empty. When the bottles are recycled, they become pellets, shown at the bottom of the bottle on the left. These bits are then made into other things, such as the stuffed horse at the far left.

The Solid Waste District holds occasional pick-up days on which people can get rid of the things that you are not supposed to put in the trash. They do not have anything to do with the recycling that the city of Rensselaer does except for the electronics recycling, which they subsidize. (There are valuable things in the recycled electronics, but there are also things that are not valuable and cost to dispose of properly. The lady at the booth said that if you get paid to recycle electronics, it probably means that the recycling is not done properly.)

The city electric department had a display showing how much electricity was used by various types of bulbs. The bulb that is on is a LED bulb, which may be the future of lighting. It used only about 12% as much electricity as an incandescent bulb to produce the same light and it has a very long lifetime. You can rush out and buy one at Kirby Risk, but it will cost you $35. You will not save enough electricity to ever make that a cost-effective decision, but given some time the technology should mature and get cheaper.

They also had some of the spiral florescent bulbs which also use less electricity than the incandescent but which are not as energy efficient as the LEDs. However, their lives are shortened by repeated on-off cycles and they are full of toxic chemicals. I predict that eventually they will be banned, but until then you may be forced to buy them. It will soon be illegal to sell the 100-watt incandescents, but there still is time to stock up.

I asked the electrical people what the large pile of poles kiddy corner on Vine and Cullen was for. It has been there for several weeks. I learned that the city electrical department was ready to start putting in a new connection between the city power plant and the substation on north Melville. It will come up Cullen to Elm, and then east to Melville. It will be a 69K (volt?) line--the present connection is only 7.2K.

On another table the city had four books of showing four different construction projects that are in the works. The one that will begin the soonest (next week) is the connecting of side-street storm drains to the Melville Street storm sewer line. This initial stage of connection will only go a block out from Melville.

The second project being planned was a renovation of the water treatment plant next to Iroquois Park. There will not be a lot to see with this project because almost all the work will be inside. The project will replace and upgrade pipes and electrical systems that have suffered corrosion from he humidity and chemicals. As part of the project, the mostly unused softball field in the park will be removed--that may be the most visible change.

A third project is a sewer line from the I-65 area to the sewage plant. The line will run down 850W to Bunkum, then east along Bunkum until it will finally pass under the river. This will not get started until 2012. The final project on display was the Austin Park project, which will be put out for bids in May.

(Speaking of projects, one under way now is a resurfacing of some of the roads in Weston Cemetery. I also heard indirectly that the lift-station renovation was funded with grants and has already begun to save the city money.)

Not only was the open house full of information, but it also had free hotdogs, chips, and cake. For both reasons I hope this will become an annual event.

Update: I was mistaken on the toothbrush. You are supposed to save the package, and when done with the toothbrush you use the package to mail it back to the manufacturer. This seems to me, a person who recycles a lot more than the average guy, to be to be recycling gone insane, the triumph of symbolism over reality.

Update 2: I forgot to mention that they had door prizes. Also, the department wants to make this an annual event. Its major purpose is to promote the idea that you need to check for what is buried underground before you dig. And finally (I hope) workers were moving the poles mentioned above, but a person at the gas department thought they route was down Merritt, not Elm. We should find out very soon.

Brought to you by the Letter M

2011-10-25T14:54:00.001-05:00

Yesterday when I rode out to the construction site of the new elementary school on Melville Street, my first reaction was, "Today's construction is brought to you by the Letter M."

The workers were busy pouring more concrete and there was a parade of concrete trucks coming and going. It is too bad that the Kindergartners or first graders could not see it--they would certainly have appreciated the M.

Construction progress has been rapid, but they still have a long way to go to complete the shell.

On a totally different topic, there were reports of Northern Lights last night. I missed them. Did any of you see them?

A late bloomer

2011-10-24T11:46:00.000-05:00

Only a few wildflowers are still blooming. A number of asters still look good, some goldenrod may still be feeding the bees. One of the last flowers to bloom is Sneezeweed (Helenium atuumnale), a small daisy-like flower. Some that I managed to grow in a garden were just beginning to bloom on Sunday.

The name Sneezeweed is not due to its pollen, but rather to a use the plant once had. The leaves were crushed and used as snuff to cause a sneeze, which was supposed to be helpful. The plant is toxic to wildlife, and usually grows in moist conditions.

I noticed it last year at the Fisher Oak Savanna and included a picture of it, but left it unidentified in that post.

Studio 110

2011-10-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

I have seen the Studio 110 signs for a week or two now, and yesterday I thought I would stop by Stunt Dawg Studios to see what was happening.

The framing business that had been at Harvey's Copy Center and had moved to Kem's Hardware after Tom Harvey retired was now moving again to Stunt Dawg, where it will go under the title of Studio 110. (Their address is 110 North Front Street if you are wondering where the 110 came from.) The display area in front was undergoing major renovation, but samples of frames were already on the wall. Stunt Dawg/Studio 110 does not keep all those frames in stock--they order what they need when they need it. UPS and FedEx allow small businesses to maintain very small inventories.

When I came to Rensselaer, Wood Brothers Seeds was at this location. They moved a number of years ago to the old Farm Bureau lumber yard on McKinley just north of the railroad tracks. The Parmeles told me that the building was originally a creamery and then later a beer warehouse or distribution center. Anyone know more about that history? The Jasper County Interim Report says the building was built around 1915.

Then they asked if I would like to see what was behind the little display room. After a zig and a zag we entered a large room with a very large machine. It is an eight-station, ten-color tee-shirt silk-screening machine (or something close to that).

However, it is not the machine used for most tee-shirt work. Rather this much smaller and older machine that can only do five colors is used on most jobs.

A tee shirt is placed on the paddle.

The acetone plate is pressed down on it. Notice the black ink on the right.

The operator pulls the ink over the screen and presses it in. (The light was low, so this shot got a lot of blur.)

Then the screen is lifted and the almost finished product is ready.

The final step is to send it through an oven that will result in the ink being bonded to the fabric so it will not wash out. The magic of chemistry is involved in this step.

(The above shows the printing of the back of the tee shirt. Doing the front requires the whole process to be done a second time.)

You are undoubtedly wondering why use the old, little press when a big, new press that can print over 300 shirts an hour is available. Although the big press will print shirts much faster, it requires more time and work to set up. So if someone needs only a dozen or two tee shirts, it is easier and faster to do them on the small, manual press. However, it you want hundreds or thousands of tee shirts with lots of different colors, that job will be done on the big press. I noticed that a plate for the Rensselaer Cross Country Invitational was still on the big press, so that is the type of event that it is used for.

There are also steps required to prepare the plates or screens. The design is done on a computer and printed, then transferred to an acetate plate, and then there are some more steps that were a little more than I could understand. I think you need to have actually done things similar to this for it all to make sense.

There was even more behind this room. In the far back was the space where they will do the actual framing and also where they produce the various types of signs that they make.

Credit union day

2011-10-21T12:42:00.002-05:00

The First Trust Credit Union was celebrating Credit Union Day today so I stopped in to have a cookie and see what they were doing.

Credit unions are a lot like banks in the services that they provide to the general public. They make more small loans than banks do, and they are non-profit. You join a credit union, and you are an "owner." Savings and Loan Associations used to be a lot like that, but most of them switched to a for-profit status a couple decades ago.

First Trust was highlighting the fact that you could belong to one credit union and conduct your transactions in the offices of another. So if you belong to PEFCU you could make deposits at First Trust and vice versa. They were not busy when I stopped in and were quite willing to spend time talking to me.

They were planning a big community picnic for Saturday using the SJC lawn adjacent to their parking lot, but that got nixed by SJC. Apparently the proposal to have a pumpkin throwing mechanism was too violent or weapon-like. Maybe next year they will be able to fold their event into some other community event. I hope so--I like the thought of flinging pumpkins. They will still have some food and contests tomorrow morning, but it will be much like what they had today.

You can't take it with you

2011-10-21T08:33:00.005-05:00

The play, "You Can't Take It With You" will play again tonight and Saturday at the Theater at SJC. Start time is 7:30 and admission is $5.

The play was written in the 1930s and is a romantic comedy. Alice, shown in blue, is in love with Tony, in the suit, but sees difficulty coming from the clash between her very eccentric family and Tony's prim and proper family. Romantic comedies of problems of class differences were fairly popular during the 30s. I vaguely recall this play being performed at SJC fifteen or twenty years ago.

Building D

2011-10-20T22:14:00.000-05:00

Do you ever wonder what is in some of the buildings in Rensselaer? Every time I went past Building D on east Walnut Street, I wondered what was in there. It is part of the Vision Ag complex, most of which is on West Walnut Street.

Last week the big door was open so I could see inside. Naturally I took a picture. I am not sure what was in the piles, but they have interesting colors that contrasts well with the blackness of the background. You can see some holes in the north wall--this building obviously is not heated.

New things at the historical society

2011-10-18T08:58:00.000-05:00

After the Yeoman celebration in August, I visited the Jasper County Historical Society Museum because a comment said that they had a DVD of the film that was showing at the Yeoman event. Although they did have a DVD (only $10), it was not the right film. It was a DVD that had been made from a VCR tape that the Society had put together several years ago.

The Museum had added a number of pieces to the quilt display, including a Hmong quilt owned by Jane Lord. Ms Lord will be doing the Riley Read at the Jasper County Library right before Tricks and Treating hours begin.

Your last chance to see the quilt show may be tonight (Tuesday, Oct 18) at 6:30, when the Historical Society has a meeting featuring Brian Capouch talking about old Jasper County families. Professor Capouch has been writing a weekly column for the Pulaski County Journal and you can find links to all of his articles here. (This link is also on the right sidebar in the Rensselaer Links section.) Most of his articles discuss western Pulaski County, but he often includes information about eastern Jasper County, as in his discussion of the the draining of the marshes or the cultivation of mint.

If you visit the museum, you cannot miss the large spinning wheel that dominates the back part of the room. It is a recent acquisition, as is the funny looking thing to its left. Both came from a pioneer family that settled in Carpenter township.

If you visit the museum or drive past it, you may notice construction activity across the street, on the northeast corner of College and Cullen. I checked the building permit to learn that it will be a duplex.

(The draining of the marshes reminds me that I never mentioned the update to the video being produced about the draining of the area marshes and the dredging of the Kankakee. Here is a Facebook page of that project, and here is a youtube video.)

Hoover House is closing

2011-10-17T12:27:00.000-05:00

The most recent Shopper's News had an ad announcing the closing of Hoover House furniture.

Hoover House has been in business on the courthouse square in Rensselaer since the late 1960s, and before Hoover bought it, the location had a furniture store under a different name. It has been owned by Bob Messman since sometime in the 1990s.

I asked why the store was closing, and was told that business has been slow for several years.

The store inventory is smaller than it was several years ago, the last time I was in the store.

Everything is for sale, and they say they will accept reasonable bids. I am not quite sure what a reasonable bid is. There is no definite final day--the final closing depends on how quickly or slowly the merchandise that is there sells.

One wing of the store is already empty. That suggests that the owner knew some time ago that this day was coming and that he was reducing inventory by not replacing what was sold.

Soon the whole place will look like this.

In the past year and a half downtown Rensselaer will have lost both of its furniture businesses.

Getting ready for Halloween

2011-10-16T12:56:00.002-05:00

I noticed strange construction by the Assembly of God church recently and found that they were setting up their Fear Factory, which seems to be a haunted house type of experience with a religious message. I think they have done this event in the past--maybe I should go this year to see exactly what it is.

It will be open from October 26th through October 29, 6:00 to 9:00.

After the shower

2011-10-14T23:08:00.000-05:00

In the middle of the afternoon, a rain shower suddenly popped up over Rensselaer and with it came either some sleet or tiny hail. A few other showers were popping up as well, and as one receded, I noticed a faint rainbow under the dark cloud. Can you see it in the picture below?

The corn looks ready to harvest. Many of the fields close to Rensselaer still are not harvested, though most of them look like they are ready.

Our unseasonably warm weather appears to be over. The forecast is for a freeze next week that will kill frost-sensative plants.

NICHES news

2011-10-13T22:18:00.000-05:00

NICHES has added a third property in Jasper County, a ten-acre tract south of the Jasper-Pulastk Fish and Wildlife area. They purchased it on September 1 from the Jasper County Soil and Water Conservation District. I had a chance meeting with someone who knew the back story and discovered that the property had been given to JCSW some years ago. JCSW thought NICHES would fulfill the wishes of the donor.

The two other NICHES tracts in Jasper County are the Fisher Oak Savanna and Shepard Swamp. Also close to Rensselaer is the Holley Savannah in Newton County

NICHES is planning a public tour the property on Wednesday, November 16:

Join us at The Ranch, one of the properties that we are currently raising funds for its long term protection, for a tour of the black oak sand savannas, wet prairies and buttonbush swamp. The Ranch is located 1 1/4 mile east of the intersection of 300 E and 750 N in Jasper County, a half mile south of Jasper Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area. Tour at the Ranch will begin at 4:45 PM ET. After the tour we will drive over to the observation platform at Jasper Pulaski, meeting at 6 PM, to take in the cranes returning from their foraging foray in the countryside. Afterwards we will have a 7:30 PM dinner at The Whistle Stop (participants cover their own dinner) in Monon, IN.

Please RSVP to NICHES office by November 9th if you will be attending the dinner portion of the evening. Bring a friend and introduce someone to NICHES.

There is a mistake in the directions; the property is only 1/4 to 1/2 miles from the intersection of 300E and 750N. You can see where it is on the property map of Jasper County at jasper.in.wthgis.com/.

Some changes in the east

2011-10-12T20:36:00.001-05:00

Construction of the new elementary school on Melville has been progressing nicely for the past couple of weeks. The many deliveries have caused the pavement on that section of the street to begin breaking up.

About two weeks ago our wet weather had given the site deep mud. The warm and dry weather since has let the contractors compact what will be the entry way and parking lots.

As part of that project, a strip along Melville was evacuated. It will eventually become a third lane, a turn lane.

Tuesday was concrete-pouring day. I found out later that they were pouring the pad or floor for the building. Because the building is quite a ways from the road, it is often hard to see what is going on.

This strange vehicle may have been what compacted the soil where there will eventually be roads and parking lots.

A bit to the south the framing has begun on what will be a storage facility. The budget for this is probably only a few percent of the budget for the school. It is close to the road so it is much easier to see what the workers are doing.

The hospital construction seems to be mostly done. There are still some storage containers near the site and there are still workmen around, but the construction fencing has been removed.

Trees

2011-10-11T12:01:00.001-05:00

The Prairie Arts Council has an exhibit called "Trees" in the Carnegie Center until November 4, 2012. The exhibit features paintings, drawings, photographs, and baskets done by members of Jasper County Art League.

There are a about 25 artists and photographers represented with over 100 works on display. The above picture is a watercolor entitled "Northward Bound: Sandhill Cranes" by Rebecca Brody.

Speaking of trees, this morning I found a tree that was losing more than its leaves.

(I am not the only one who enjoys watching men at heights. Did you see how the major news media delighted in pictures of workers inspecting the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. after the Virginia earthquake. They did get some spectacular shots.)

Some changes in the west

2011-10-10T17:14:00.000-05:00

The tennis courts at Brookside Park have been refurbished, with new surface and new paint.

The Talbert Bridge has an official name and a don't-sue-us-if-you-do-something-stupid sign.

One too many drivers in Weston Cemetery did something stupid, so there is now a guard rail at the southeastern bend of the cemetery road. A few days before this rail was installed, there were tire track leading down into the river. What is unusual is that the rail looks like it has always been there.

The trees in Weston Cemetery were at peak color over the weekend, probably because there are a lot of hickory and ash which turn early. When I first started this blog I had many posts on autumn trees, so again this year I will skip that topic. The same holds for Halloween decorations unless I see something truly spectacular or weird.

What and where is this?

2011-10-09T02:32:00.003-05:00

The Rensselaer Republican had a weekly feature in which readers try to identify a picture. Each day more of the picture is revealed. Below is a picture that they probably would never use--but can you identify what is shown in the picture below and where it is?

A hint: I found this when I was looking at flowers along a road. It is either in Rensselaer or on the city line. Think parking lot drainage.

Closed?

2011-10-06T20:07:00.000-05:00

Months ago I noticed that a new restaurant had opened east of the Dairy Queen near the I-65 and SR 114 intersection. In September I noticed a menu posted on a bulletin board at SJC.

(Perhaps the restaurant that I noticed in the winter had changed management or ownership in the summer. Does anyone know?)

This evening I finally decided to see what they had. But when I arrived the parking lot was empty and there was a sign on the door saying, "Closed."

Another sign advertised that the property was for sale or rent.

So it appears that I will never find out whether the food there was any good or not. This restaurant did not last a year, which is less than the last restaurant there, Los Tres Garcias, lasted. This has not been a successful location for restaurants. It is too far from the Interstate and also independent restaurants simply do not do well along interstates. An independent restaurant depends on local reputation and is best located in town. A place along the interstate does not depend on repeat buyers so local reputation is not helpful. What is helpful is brand recognition, which is why almost all eateries along interstates are parts or franchises of nationally or regionally known chains. (A little bit of the economics of asymmetric information.)

There may be another closing in the works. A letter to the editor in the Rensselaer Republican said that Rico's was having problems getting is liquor license renewed. Anyone know more and willing to share?

Sold

2011-10-05T14:59:00.000-05:00

News from the Facebook page of Jamie's Cafe:

The new owners are Experienced Restaurant Owners from The Great State of Illinois, Brent & Candy Schmid of The Pizza Palace.....They will be serving Pizza, Pasta, Ribs and American Food as soon as they give Jamie's Cafe a Pizza Palace Make-Over.... Best of Luck Schmid's at your New Location!!!

That is about it for today. It is such a beautiful fall day with warm temperatures, blue skies, and colorful leaves, that people should not be spending their time in front of a computer screen. This is a day to get out and enjoy a great fall day. There will be plenty of days coming soon when sitting in front of a computer screen will be appropriate.

The return of ink

2011-10-04T13:07:00.000-05:00

The other day someone mentioned to me that there was a new sign on the door of 216 W Washington, so this morning I stopped by Hometown Bargains to ask about it.

It is a new tattoo parlor, Oddities Ink. The folks downstairs at Hometown Bargains did not know it if was open yet or not, but said that the owner had been in the tattoo business for many years. The lower rent of an upstairs office should make his business more financially viable. It is in the space that used to be Erickson's Photo Studio.

Speaking of Hometown Bargains, it has a lot more stuff in it than the last time I stopped by. The extra stuff has come from vendors renting space to display the things that they are selling. I noticed a copy of the high school yearbook from 1924, and though it looked intriguing, the $45 price tag was a bit too much for me. The last three or four pages had ads from local businesses, and few included their street address but almost all included their phone numbers. I guess they expected everyone to know where they were located. There was also a display in the back for a business that carves names and logos into rocks. I have seen some of these around town but did not realize that there was someone locally producing them.

One of the things that Hometown Bargains is trying to sell is the building itself. Signs on the window say "Guardian Commercial Real Estate Services / Business Open / Building for Sale.

SJC Homecoming and Oktoberfest

2011-10-03T08:30:00.000-05:00

This past weekend had a couple of big events, the SJC Homecoming and MainStreet Rensselaer's Oktoberfest. The Homecoming event I really wanted to go to, a tour of the some of the windmills that are on the Waugh property in White County that benefits SJC, was sold out when I tried to make a reservation several weeks ago. If SJC offers it next year, I will try to sign up early. I did get to a bit of the football game. While I was there, the visiting team, Robert Morris, was making more yards on penalties than any other way. A check of the game stats shows that my impression was not far off; SJC was penalized 14 times for 137 yards, Robert Morris gained 124 net yards rushing and 99 passing. Both team passed a lot, so the game moved very slowly. SJC did pull out the win 35-27, coming from behind in the second half.

As halftime approached, the band got ready with some sort of exercise that looked more interesting that what I could see on the football field.

The halftime performance featured the percussionists playing trash cans.

There are special activities for homecoming, such as this inflatable slide and a climbing wall.

Of course there is also the traditional beer and brat tent. I wandered around looking for people I knew and found a few, including one of my favorite students from several years ago. She is now in Chicago working and trying to find work as an actress. She said she has done some commercials and indie films, especially horror films. Here is her website; if you click on reels you can see some demos of her work.

As I was leaving I noticed that a fuel tank has joined the generator outside the Core Building. (The Hicks Gas tank has been there for years--it provides gas to a science lab.) I suspect that these will be fenced soon, and hopefully hidden in some way because they are not attractive where they are. I think the point of the generator is to provide emergency power for computer servers in the building so that the network does not go down with a power outage. I could be wrong about that.

The other thing that caught my eye was I was leaving is that the lighting that was being installed as the school year approached seems to be complete.

Saturday evening was time to go downtown to see what was happening at Oktoberfest, a fundraiser for Rensselaer Mainstreet. It was chilly, but this year there was no rain. The turnout seemed about normal.

The musical entertainment for for those who arrived early was the Oktubas. I do not think this group exists other than to play for this event, but they both fit the event very well and play well. For those who arrive later, the music, which was louder and less Germanic, was provided by the local band Suckerpunch.

Food was provided by City Office and Pub, Clauss Bakery and Cafe, The Doghouse, and the Eagles. Below you can see the Clauss Bakery booth.

The event changes as the evening goes along. The people who come early usually are interested in eating and talking, with the music in the background and entertainment for young kids. For the people who come later, the music plays a larger part in the experience because it is much louder and the beer garden gets more crowded.

Jack came to visit

2011-10-02T08:22:00.001-05:00

Jack Frost paid an extended visit to Rensselaer last night, his first of the season. Here is a picture of grass in Brookside Park. Yes, the white stuff is frost.

You can see it better on the bleachers by the soccer field. Only the boards for sitting had the frost. The lower boards that serve as foot rests either had only dew or the water froze in a different way. (I did not check.)

The forecast was for patchy frost, so I was not surprised to see it this morning. I was surprised by how much of it there was, though.

Some people were better prepared than I was. They covered their sensitive plants.

We are supposed to have a warm-up this week. I will try to use it to get ready for winter.

Were they lost?

2011-09-29T12:56:00.000-05:00

I observed this bus passing through downtown Rensselaer Thursday morning. I was so surprised it took me a few seconds to realize that I should take out my camera and take a picture. If I had been a little faster, I would have gotten a better shot.

Why was the C-SPAN Campaign-2012 bus in Rensselaer? Where was it coming from and where was it going to?

Where were we (part 2)? (Updated)

2011-09-27T13:47:00.001-05:00

Where were we? This was taken this past weekend, so you might be able to identify exactly where these pictures were taken.
Updated:
Anonymous had the right answer. We were at Prophetstown State Park near Lafayette. After our group finished with the Feast of the Hunter's Moon, we headed over to the campground at Prophetstown and set up camp. We all ate supper in the light rain, but only half the group stayed over night. The other half, which included me, came back to Rensselaer.

Only the older child shown below camped. She slept well. The younger one came to Rensselaer, and did not sleep as well.

The dark skies shown below had rain. We encountered much heavier rain on I-65 driving back to Rensselaer. By the way, I think the campground regulations say that tents are supposed to be placed on the gravel.

This was my second time in the campground and I still have not camped there. The first time was on Halloween several years ago. My daughter-in-law judged Halloween decorations. The campground was full, and some of the campers went to elaborate lengths decorating. If I had been blogging at the time, I would have taken a lot of pictures because it was impressive. Halloween decorations are common in many campgrounds.

If you follow the Wabash River upstream a bit, you find Delphi. I was indirectly given a link to an Indiana bicycle site a couple days ago, and that site had a nice article on the Delphi trail system.

Update 2: November 5-7 will mark the bicentennial of the Battle of Tippecanoe. Programs are planned for both Prophetstown State Park and the Battlefield Memorial. Detail can be found here.

Where was I? (Updated)

2011-09-26T08:30:00.000-05:00

I had an interesting weekend. Here are some pictures from part of it. Where was I? (This one is easy--not like some of the ones the Little Indiana has on her Facebook page.)

Update--all text from here is part of the update.)

Wow--what an amazing amount of reader reaction. One comment in twelve hours!

Yes, it was the Feast of the Hunter's Moon near Lafayette. Past posts on this event are here and here.

I took this picture because I liked the dress of the lady in red. It stood out.

One of the most popular food booths was the apple dumpling booth. All the cooking is done on site in these ovens. I found out after getting home that it is a fund-raiser for Central Catholic High School in Lafayette. We will be hearing a lot more about CC in the paper because the school has joined the athletic conference that RCHS belongs to.

I thought the plastic tubs were a bit out of place. The lines for this booth were amazingly long, probably the longest for any of the food booths. I wonder if any Rensselaer organizations have ever considered using the Feast for fund raising. It would require some costuming and an appropriate activity, but there sure are big crowds. I bought a large pork chop from a booth that was run by some organization from Rossville. People ate them without knives or forks--probably the way they would have been eaten when Fort Ouiatenon was active.

These guys could be Little Cousin Jasper after he grew up.

I did not get to hear as much music as I wanted to hear. I have a granddaughter who thinks I am great, and as a sign of her affection she wanted me and only me to carry her. She got heavier and heavier as the day went on. And she complained when I sat down.

I included this picture because I thought the blue boxes in the background added a nice touch.

Watching the many people in costumes is one of the highlights of the Feast.

My granny, what big gourds you have.

These are the fabulous Budabi Brothers, who are excellent jugglers and very funny comedians. Their act is pretty much the same from year to year, but they do it so well that most people who see it one year want to see it the next year.

Sitting a few feet from me watching this performance was an Amish family. I was struck how well they fit in. I wonder how many people realized that they were dressed in their everyday clothing.

I neglected to get a picture of the GFS trucks in the parking lot, so I will settle for this one. Actually, there were a lot of similar scenes in the food booths.

Many craftsmen have exhibits and sell wares at the Feast. This yarn is colored with dyes that come from plants rather than petrochemical refineries. The colors are more muted, but that is what people in the 18th century would have had available.

For people who want to buy junk, there are silly wooden carvings of toy guns and mass produced bows and arrows. There are no NASCAR items, however. Booths are restricted to things that seem period appropriate.

The Feast is a lot of fun even though it has gotten a bit too big. We parked in the Purdue football stadium parking lot and took the shuttle. The lot was almost full and we had to wait about fifteen minutes for the bus. It could have been a lot worse. If you have never been to this event, you really should go some year.

Church repair

2011-09-25T20:17:00.003-05:00

Every congregation that has a church faces the problems of maintenance and repair. St. Augustine's Catholic Church in Rensselaer is in the process of repairing crumbling plaster caused by water leakage. The picture below is a week old. After the plaster is repaired, the painting will begin.

Strange vehicles

2011-09-23T23:09:00.000-05:00

This morning I saw what looked like a camper coming down the railroad tracks west of Rensselaer. It was a truck that was checking the rails for faults. You can see the testing equipment hanging off the back. I thought it was interesting that it was not a CSX vehicle. Big as CSX is, they find it cheaper to hire out that service or else they do not have the expertise to provide it themselves. Here is the website of the company doing the testing.

Following this vehicle was a CSX truck that pulled up its rail wheels when it got to this crossing on Mattheson, and drove away on Mattheson.

In the afternoon I noticed the interesting vehicle below on Drexel Drive. It was a machine that made by Ditch Witch that trenches and installs cable.

The men who worked it seemed to be further west on Drexel Drive, working a small backhoe digging holes to get cables under the driveways. They were from a company with the interesting name of Berry It Inc. Underground Utility Services. I did not find out exactly what they were burying--it was an optical cable, but I do not know if it was for phone, television, Internet, or some combination of those.

Update: Stopping by a few days after these pictures were taken, I asked one of the workers who the cable was for. He said it was a Verizon cable.

Men at work

2011-09-22T16:33:00.000-05:00

I read a bit about the need for repairs to the north city water tank several months ago and have been looking for some sign of that work ever since. Today I finally found some. It looks like whatever repairs that the water tower needs are finally going to be done.

And I even found men at heights!

And after months of going by the school construction site and seeing very little going on, the site is now as busy as a beehive, with lots of workers out in the field.

Cement block walls are being built, and in a few weeks maybe it will start looking like a building.

A leisurely ride

2011-09-21T22:01:00.000-05:00

The Renssselaer Republican had an article this week on the Harvest Garden at SJC. This past summer a couple of faculty members with the aid of some students planted a garden to the south of the campus with a variety of vegetables. They are now harvesting these and using them to prepare meals for the freshman. One of the goals of the program is to teach students about where food comes from and how to prepare it. People who live in the city often do not know much about the food they eat other than it comes from the store. Here is the SJC press release on the program.

My interest in the program is largely because one of the organizers told me that they had some extra land and asked if I wanted to use it. I accepted, and planned to plant squash. Things did not go quite as well as planned. First, I wanted to plant butternut squash because they are less susceptible vine borers. I planted seeds I had saved from last year, but forgot that I had saved some seeds from my acorn squash as well as the butternut squash. Most of what came up was acorn or acorn hybrids. Acorn squash will cross with summer squash or pumpkins because they are all the same species. And then there were the squash bugs, the second major squash pest. There was a plague of them and they killed the plants. I still have a some stuff left. The nice tall plants--over five feet tall now--are okra. There are also tomatoes that I transplanted from my home garden. I expected most would be the tiny cherry tomatoes because I was transplanting the volunteers, and unfortunately I was right. I got some things out of it and did not spend money or much time on it, so it was a success, just not as big as success as I wanted.

After picking a a few dozen tiny tomatoes, I decided to take a leisurely bike ride west of town. One of my first stops was to take a picture of this preying mantis that was on the road. (Maybe I should have captured it and taken it back to the garden so it could eat squash bugs.) I suspect there are actually quite a few mantises around, but they are only easily visible when they are out of place, like on the road.

I was surprised to see workers doing something to the tower at the intersection of 700S and 900W. Unfortunately the worker on the tower was pretty close to the ground, not near the top. I think this is more than a cell-phone tower. I think it is part of the microwave network to relay telephone calls. If you know more about this tower, please tell us what you know in the comments.

There has been construction on I-65 for quite some time, but I almost never travel the section of the highway between the SR 114 exit and the US 231 exit. There is work on the shoulders, and in the picture below there is a small white vehicle in the median strip that was uprooting the sod. I tried to find an explanation of the work on the Internet, but could not. This project has been ongoing for at least several weeks. What is going on with it?

I noticed a cornfield that had been harvested, the first one I have seen around here. Some of the soybeans look ready to harvest, while others are still completely green.

Often the fall equinox falls on the 21st, but this year it does not occur until the 23rd. Hope you enjoy the final couple days of summer.

Update: Speaking of cell phone towers, about a month ago the Goodland facebook page said that Verizon was building a new 4G tower in Goodland. If progress is on schedule, it should be done in another month.

School construction?

2011-09-20T05:11:00.000-05:00

The Building Trades house is now above ground as the student work on framing.

November will be here soon

2011-09-19T14:42:00.000-05:00

Reminders that November will be here soon were popping up all over town last week.

I thought it funny that these two signs were in the same lawn. Maybe one was "his" and the other "hers." I also thought it funny that they are using the same colors, which makes the signs all over town look pretty similar.

I do not mind the electioneering for a few weeks before elections. On the other hand, the electioneering that is going on now in preparation for November 2012 is way too early.

School construction

2011-09-17T11:35:00.002-05:00

There is now structure visible at the construction site of the new school that will replace Monnett. What is there is far from the road so it is hard to see exactly what part of the building they are building first. It is probably a core for the utilities--heating, cooling, etc.

There are plenty of construction supplies waiting to be used.

I hope a picture is worth a thousand words because I cannot think of anything interesting to say about this.

RCHS Homecoming parade 2011

2011-09-16T09:12:00.000-05:00

Today is homecoming at RCHS. Last night the school had their homecoming parade--our second parade in less than a week! I got there a bit early so went over to see the line up. The football team and the cheerleaders had gotten into place on five firetrucks and the parade was ready to get started.

There were no horses, but there were four tractors.

I am not sure which class had the "Trash the Indians" float. The cross country team was on bikes behind this float. I tried to take pictures of the other class floats, but the light was fading and my pictures did not turn out.

Each of the Homecoming Queen candidates was in a convertible. I was busy watching the kids scramble for candy, so I did not see where the missing queen candidate was in this shot. For the kids parades are mostly about the candy. Forget the parade, find the candy.

I hope the kids enjoy the homecoming festivities. High school goes by very quickly.

(The state resurfaced the highway from Monnett school to the stoplight. I missed the activity on Monday, but the Rensselaer Republican got a good picture of it. It looks like the stretch of highway in the picture above will need some work in the not-so-distant future.)

Shopping at Superior Sales and Service

2011-09-15T08:55:00.000-05:00

I mentioned a few posts ago that Superior Sales and Service on Vine Street had new owners. Several days ago I stopped by to pick up a bike wheel that I had left there to be repaired and I took the time to find out more.

The new owners are Blake Carter and Mike White. The business will remain as it has been, with bike sales and service an important part of the mix. They had a large selection of bikes on display and more waiting to be unpacked. (It is probably not the best time of the year for bike sales. Most people do not have my attitude about riding bikes--every day is a good day to ride a bike unless there are six inches of snow on the roads.)

The store sells also sells paint, paint supplies, and Toro lawn equipment.

A final part of the business mix is tool rental. Behind the shop is a row of small building with a variety of construction equipment for rent. About half the renters are contractors who find it cheaper to rent equipment that they use infrequently rather than buy it. The other half is do-it-yourself homeowners.

When I came to Rensselaer, this store was Brusnahans. Back then the only brand of bike it sold was Schwinn. At the time most bicycles sold in the U.S were made in the U.S. and Schwinn was recognized as the top brand of consumer bikes. I think Schwinn was one of those family-owned businesses in which the sons did not have the talent of the father, and they were not able to keep the company on top of the bike world.

In its early days Brusnahan big business was selling coal. There was a time in which coal was the heating source for most homes, and that coal was delivered by the railroad, which explains why the business is where it is, next to the CSX tracks. In older homes you can sometimes still see reminders of that era--a few still have coal chute doors, and in basements you can find traces of the coal bins. The buildings shown above were built on the foundation of the coal storage structure.

Below is a peek inside one of the buildings. You can see a machine for smoothing concrete and tanks of oxygen used for welding as well as other things that I cannot identify.

I had to ask if they had two-man augers, and they said that they did. My son recently rented one in Indianapolis, and I got to be the second man. Digging post holes was much more work than I expected it to be.

LCJF entertainment

2011-09-14T08:30:00.000-05:00

One of the draws of the Little Cousin Jasper Festival is the array of entertainment acts that the organizers schedule. I caught parts of a number of them. On Saturday there was a group of cloggers. Until recently there was a local clogging group, but I heard that they disbanded. Some of the former members joined with a group from Chesterton, and I think it was this group that performed. They were the Sunshine Cloggers.

The Rensselaer's Got Talent competition had a big audience. The group of dancers from the First Assembly of God shown below won the competition.

The number of acts has declined since the Rensselaer's Got Talent show started several years ago, and now most of the acts are kids.

The headliner for the event was Amanda Overmyer, who was a finalist on American Idol a few years back. She sang for about an hour on Saturday evening to a large crowd. People seemed to enjoy the event. Many listened to her sing, while others visited with friends and kids were throwing some kind of lighted toy into the air.

After her performance, Ms Overmyer signed autographs and sold CDs. She seemed very comfortable in the routine.

The festival was much smaller on Sunday, but that did not dampen the enthusiasm of a Sheltered Reality, a percussion group from Frankfort. In one of their numbers the kids bounced balls on the drums as part of the act.

The group also got a lot of audience participation, as when they did the YMCA song.

The last group to perform on Sunday was the Commmity Band, which played a number of marches and patriotic songs. They deserved a larger audience than they got, but by the time they were on stage most of the vendors were taking down their tents and packing up.

The organizers again did an excellent job of having almost continuous entertainment.

Moving day

2011-09-13T12:38:00.001-05:00

This morning the parking spaces in front of the Jasper County Microfilm Department were blocked off, so I suspected that the office might finally be moving. I was too late--the office had almost been cleaned out.

I went over to the Court House to see what the move looked like at that end. It was a scene of some confusion. It appeared that the file cabinets had been moved (probably on Monday), but the placement of furniture and the rest of the office furnishings was incomplete. I would like to have gone inside and taken some pictures, but I doubt if the people there would have welcomed me. They looked pretty busy trying to figure out how they wanted the furnishings to be placed.

Jasper County Fall Festival

2011-09-13T08:30:00.000-05:00

Rensselaer had two festivals last weekend. While the Little Cousin Jasper Festival was going on around the Court House, the Jasper County Fall Festival was taking place at the Jasper County Fairgrounds. This festival was started a few years ago when the Little Cousin Jasper Festival ceased. Then the LCJF was revived, and we ended with two on the same weekend.

New this year to the JCFF were carnival rides. When I visited on Saturday afternoon, only a few of the rides were going, and those had one rider. Perhaps things picked up a bit later. The ride operator was not the same one that provides rides for the Jasper County Fair. It was Anderson Amusements from Asonia, Ohio. I like the geometry of this ride shown below.

I think there were more exhibitors at the JCFF than at the LCJF. The main exhibit hall was full, as was the roofed commercial shelter to its south. This machine, part of an exhibit for geothermal heating and cooling, was to the south of all of them. Although there were more exhibitors, I think there were fewer people, though it is hard to compare because the spaces are so different.

The Rensselaer quilters had a striking display in the east wing of the main exhibit hall. The quilters were also doing demonstrations throughout the day.

The LCJF had much more scheduled entertainment in the form of singing and dancing groups than the JCFF, but the JCFF had a lot of events for people to participate in. Both festivals had kiddie tractor pulls. This one was in the Retired Iron building.

While I was there, a corn hole tournament was underway in the show arena. The people throwing the bags were a lot better than my family members when we play the game. The most intriguing competition was a women's skillet toss on Sunday. I did not get to that one.

I never did see the shuttle bus that was supposed to take people between the festivals on Saturday. I thought it unfortunate that both festivals scheduled their prime attractions at the same time, on Saturday evening. I do not know what the future holds for these two festivals, but I do not think that what they are doing now is working. I hope they can either reschedule one so they do not conflict, or if they keep them scheduled on the same weekend, they can harmonize the schedules better.

LCJ parade 2011

2011-09-12T08:19:00.001-05:00

Though the Little Cousin Jasper Festival began Friday afternoon, it did not get into full swing until Saturday after the Little Cousin Jasper parade. Near the front of the parade were several units marking the tenth anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Members of the Rensselaer Volunteer Fire Department, with the assistance of a couple of firemen from Remington, carried a large U.S. flag.

Behind them was a trailer with two sections of I-beams from the World Trade Center. Members of the fire department had driven to New York last week to pick them up. The terms of the donation state that they must be used in a memorial at the fire station, and that memorial must be lit at night. I thought it would be nice if they could put the memorial across the street in the little Halleck Park, but that does not seem to be an option.

The parade had the usual commercial and political floats. There were a number of mascots in the parade. I am not sure whether the mouse character was attached to the South Newton band or to a previous parade unit. There were also clowns (appropriately part of a political unit), and a chicken urging people to eat chicken at KFC.

There were three bands in the parade. The best band unit was won by the West Central band, shown below. It was impressed by its size--West Central is not a big school.

The SJC band did not march or appear at all in the Festival this year. They probably were preoccupied with the home football opener at the college on Saturday. I wonder if the West Central band competed in the band competition at the high school in the afternoon. There were two big events at the high school on Saturday, the annual Rensselaer Cross Country Invitational in the morning (I spent about ten years working that meet--I miss the donuts in the morning) and a band competition in the afternoon.

The grand marshal of the parade was Larry Vanderwielen, whose late wife Lynn helped establish the Little Cousin Jasper Festival. He and his wife plus their seven children and 22 grandchildren were on a float. Larry and Lynn were my neighbors when I moved to Rensselaer, and their two older daughters babysat occasionally for our kids, plus delivered the Rensselaer Republican for several years back when Rensselaer still had paper boys and girls. I was able to speak briefly with him on Sunday morning.

The parade did not have the usual firetrucks with sirens--the firemen and EMTs were marching this year. But it did have something I like to see in all rural parades: horses.

A floor

2011-09-12T08:16:00.000-05:00

Late last week, maybe on Saturday, the concrete floor for the new park shelter in Bicentennial Park was completed.

The shelter looks compete. Unlike shelters in Brookside Park, it has no electricity and there are no readily-available restrooms. It will be interesting to see how much use it gets next summer.

Update: I talked to workers taking off the forms this morning. They said that there was a restroom facility in the plans as well as a plan to provide electricity to the shelter.

9-11 memorial

2011-09-11T19:18:00.000-05:00

This afternoon Saint Joseph's College had a memorial commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the 9-11 terroist attacks. After an opening prayer and the Pledge of Allegence, the president of the College, Dr Riegelnegg, talked for a few minutes, followed by some remarks from L.E. Buzz Koehler, Chief of the Rensselaer Volunteer Fire Department.

A reading from the Letter to the Romans, the college choir rendition of the National Anthem, and a reading from Habakkuk followed. A moment of silence and taps concluded the event.

Students had placed 2977 small flags in the lawn in front Halleck Center, one for each life lost in the attacks.

Saving soles--Shopping at Larry's Shoe Repair

2011-09-09T08:08:00.000-05:00

Last week I had some tennis shoes that had come unglued. They were still fairly new and in very good shape except for the glue failure. Rather than throw them out, I decided to take them down to one of Rensselaer's oldest businesses, Larry's Shoe Repair on Front Street.

Larry bought this business in 1964 from his father, who had had it for twenty years previously. I do not know of any individual who has run a business for as long in Rensselaer. His business has three parts: sales of Redwing work boots, shoe repair, and orthopedic alterations.

RedWing is one of the few shoe manufacturers that still makes some of its shoes in the U.S. I read a few years ago that it is very difficult to make shoes in the U.S. because most of the suppliers, the businesses that provide all the parts, are gone. They exist in China, so it is easy to make shoes there. There is one province in China that makes one third of the world's shoes. Something similar has happened in electronics.

Shoe repair is a declining industry. Shoes are now made to be thrown away when they break rather than be repaired, and most are cheap enough to replace rather than repair. There are not nearly as many shoe repair shops as there once were; the nearest competitors for Larry's Shoe Repair are in Lafayette and Merrillville.

While I was talking to him, he was working on an orthopedic alteration. He had taken the sole off a shoe and put in another layer of rubber-like material to make the shoe a bit higher.

Larry no longer advertises but relies on word of mouth referrals--satisfied customers recommending him to others. After almost fifty years in business, that should be all he needs.

What seemed new is actually old

2011-09-08T06:35:00.001-05:00

The Fairmeadows Home Health Care Center at 300 S Cullen is now open, so I stopped in Wednesday to see what they had. I was surprised to find that they were not really a new business. Rather they were a re-incarnation of the Home Medical Equipment Department of the Jasper County Hospital. This department had been sold by the Jasper County Hospital to the Schereville company because it was a financial drain on the hospital. The old location was in the annex building to the south west of the hospital. This becomes the only satellite office of the Fairmeadows Home Health Care company and should give it access to a much larger area of Northwest Indiana.

The four ladies in the office were very friendly and willing to answer all my questions. The new location may not be permanent but was chosen because it was available on the right terms. It probably is not ideal for the sort of business they have, which is providing hospital beds, oxygen equipment, equipment for sleep apnea, and many other medical items for home use. Many or most of the customers are on Medicare and must go through a physician to get medical approval for payment.

I hope the new office is very successful. It is convenient for Rensselaer to have this service in town rather than having to go to either Lafayette or the urban area to our north.

Getting ready for LCJ 2011

2011-09-07T18:25:00.000-05:00

City workers were moving bleachers from Brookside Park to the Court House Square this afternoon, getting the area around the Court House ready for the start of the Little Cousin Jasper Festival on Friday.

There are plans for a shuttle bus to take people from the Little Cousin Jasper Festival to the Jasper County Fall Festival at the Fairgrounds. I will be very curious to see how that works out.

In Harmony with Nature exhibit

2011-09-01T20:43:00.000-05:00

From now until the end of September the Prairie Arts Council has an exhibit of works by Bonnie Zimmer and her mother Doris Myers at the Fendig Gallery in the Carnegie Center. (Should that have been Doris Myers and her daughter Bonnie Zimmer?) Ms Zimmer likes to work with basketry, using a wide variety of material to construct her basket sculptures.

Ms Meyers works in a variety of media, but her paintings are featured in this show. Many of them show reflections in water.

Many of those that do not have water have clouds.

The show is large with many works by both artists. There is a reception for the show on Friday, September 16 from, 6:30 until 8:30.

Construction odds and ends

2011-08-31T22:53:00.000-05:00

I had been told by a reliable source that this week we might see some foundations poured at the elementary school construction site on Melville, so this morning I went out to see what was happening. I did not see any foundations being put in, but it seems that they have finally stopped moving dirt around. There are stakes in the ground marking something--maybe where foundations will go?
On the way there I passed Superior Sales and Service, the bike shop. Yesterday I had stopped in to inquire about a bike repair and was surprised to learn that it has a new owner. Scott Donnelly has retired.

I always take pictures when I see guys working on the railroad, but I do not always use them. They were grinding the rails at the switch. It must have been causing problems.

Less photogenic but more interesting was a bulldozer on the lot just south of the city substation on Melville. (On maps it seems that this substation is not inside city borders. Am I misreading the map?) This lot is part of the Lintner Industrial Park, west of the big State of Indiana complex. Anyone know anything about plans for the site?

The third pump for the lift station arrived this morning, and by chance I passed by just as the workers were pushing it into the building. They had it on some kind of lift, so it slid in quickly and easily. You can see one of the old motors and one of the old pumps next to the fence.

At SJC the work on the smokestack seems to have been completed--the platform is gone. I expected them to continue whatever it was that they were doing to the top of the chimney all the way to the ground, but they did not.