Mostly more meetings

 Open house at fire station

The Rensselaer Fire Department had an open house last week and it attracted a lot of parents with children. Below Sparky is interacting with a couple.

The inflatable house that the Department has been taking to schools to talk about safety was set up.

Alliance Bank was one of several places kids and adults could get a treat. There were also cookies, popcorn, and apple slices drenched in carmel and sprinkles.

One of the stations that attracted a really long line had a fire alarm that a kid could pull and then use a fire extinguisher to electronically put out an electronic fire. The alarm was almost always going off and it was annoying. (I guess that is the goal of a fire alarm.)

I enjoyed watching little kids tossing a ball into Bozo buckets to get candy or a prize. A lot needed more practice.

Rensselaer Board of Public Works meeting

In its meeting on Monday afternoon, the Rensselaer Board of Public Works & Safety approved two applicants for the Fire Department. It then approved paying four invoices, two from Commonwealth Engineering for $9,607 and $12,331, and two from Maguire Iron for $162,685 and $$20,550. Work on the Drexel water tower is not finished. The work that is being done is inside the tank.

The Board then approved moving forward with an engineering agreement with Commonwealth for the long-term sewage control plan. This plan will have three sections, the waste-water treatment plant, an interceptor line, and relining the Melville sewer. The goal is to have it finished to have bids by April and close with the State Revolving Fund (SRF) by June. I did not catch the amount of the agreement.

Finally, the Board approved using funds left over from the water project to replace the water main along McKinley from Angelica to Vine and to also replace some lead service lines. The section of the water main along McKinley is a problem section that has had several leaks. The use of funds also needs SRF approval.

Rensselaer City Council meeting

Half an hour after the start of the BPW meeting started, the Rensselaer City Council met. After the usual preliminaries, the Major asked for citizens' comments and got one. A woman wants an ordinance that closes to vehicles undeveloped alleys, where the City owns the land but there is no roadway. Her concern comes from a neighbor who insists he has a right to drive down the undefined alley and may be driving on her property. The City will investigate her problem.

Next the Council had a public hearing on the proposed closing of the Scott Street rail crossing. Only one citizen spoke, asking why the City wanted to close the crossing. The City will receive about $80,000 from CSX for closing the crossing and would like to use the funds to pave the area around the depot and fix the drainage in that area. The Scott Street crossing does not have a stop light, unlike other crossings. Once closed, the City will not be able to reopen it. The vote on this matter will be taken at the next Council meeting.

Community Services, which operates the only public transportation service in Jasper County, would like the City to provide $12,000 as it did last year to support its transportation services. 95% of the trips it makes are in Rensselaer and it charges only $1 for a trip. It has 9 vehicles and will be getting a new one at the beginning of the year funded by a grant but must provide a cash match. The Council took no action at this meeting.

The Street Department had sought bids to remove 29 trees, 26 in City right-of-ways and three in the Cemetery. The low bid was from Timber Tree Service for $22,715 and the Council approved accepting the bid.

The Chief of Police would like a revision to the golf-cart ordinance so that only golf carts will be registered and not UTVs (utility task vehicles). He would like the ordinance to grandfather in UTVs that have already been registered but not allow any new ones. No action was taken at this meeting because the item was meant only for discussion.

The Council received an AMI metering update. AMI stands for Advanced metering  infrastructure and the meters are smart meters, able to communicate with the utility, allowing the supplier to catch problems quickly. Most or most of the electrical and water customers have AMI metering, but there are no plans at present to do gas. Installation of AMI meters is ahead of schedule.

The Council approved Grimmer pay request #7 of $211,504.50 for work on the Brick Streets project. The project is finishing up with items from a punch list being addressed. The Council passed the 2025 budget. It transferred $74,000 from this year's budget to the rainy-day fund. It did not pass the 2025 salary ordinance because there were still some changes to be made for on-call work. The gas tracker for October is a 1.5¢ decrease per hundred cubic feet.

The Council approved spending $250 for a ribbon cutting event at Filson Park on October 24. There will be pumpkin carving and other events including a free movie after. There will be a second ribbon cutting on the 24th, this one at about 7:00 at the fire station for the new training tower.

Mr Watson commented that a truck being used by the water department was embarrassing and told them to seek bids for a new truck. New police cars have been delivered and are being made ready for service. About 400 people attended the open house at the fire station last week. The burn ban has been extended for another seven days. The electric department sent people to the area hit by Helene to help restore power. The leaf vac is ready to start picking up leaves. Letters to homeowners with lead service lines will be sent in the next few weeks. The Council approved the Cemetery purchasing two mowers from next year's budget.

Jasper County Council meeting


At Tuesday's meeting the Jasper County Council approved its 2025 meeting schedule with meetings at 6:00 on the third Tuesday of each month. It then moved up approving the budget of the Rensselaer Central School Corporation so the representatives could attend the School Board meeting that also meets on third Tuesday evenings. The current enrollment in the Corporation is 1438. The Corporation recently closed on a bond with a lower-than-expected interest rate of just under 3%.


Returning to order on the agenda, the Council approved a memorandum of understanding with the Jasper County Soil & Water Conservation District about the splitting the salary of an employee of the District. It then heard from the Prosecutor, Jacob Taulman, about the salary of the 4th deputy. The person in that position is leaving for a much higher salary. The salary is listed at $57K in the salary ordinance, which is considerably less than the salaries that will be paid to part-time public defenders and may not be enough to attract qualified applicants. After discussion of what the salary should be, the Council passed a motion to allow up to $96k. That will be put in the Salary Ordinance in December and an additional appropriation will have to be made next year.


The Council held two public hearings. The first was to modify the local option income tax rate. The Council wanted to increase the amount going to Emergency Medical Services and reduce the amount going to the stabilization fund. (The Stabilization Fund is money the State withholds from the County so that if there is a year with unusually low tax receipts, the County budget will not have to drastically shrink.) In the discussion, a citizen pointed out that the numbers that the President of the Council read were not the same as those published in the newspaper. The changes passed with the note that the advertised numbers were incorrect.


The second public hearing was to modify the property tax credit rate allocations between the three property tax classifications. I did not understand this item or the discussion. The three classifications are 1) homesteads; 2) residential, agricultural, long-term care, and other tangible property; and 3) nonresidential real property, personal property and other tangible property. The first two had their credit slightly increased and the third slightly decreased.

The Sheriff came to the meeting late because he did not realize that the Council had changed its start time to 6:00 from 7:00. He noted that the price of meal service is increasing. He said that his department has had eight deer-car accidents and as a result of this and some other factors, he will need more in his auto budget to finish the year. It will be on the agenda for the November meeting. He reported that the Department's retirement fund has had very good returns for the past two years and is now 81-82% fully funded.

The Council then approved its budget and also the budgets of the Airport Authority, the Northwest Solid Waste district, and the Iroquois Conservancy.

Karen Wilson from Emergency Management reported that she has been working with others collecting supplies for the area hit by Hurricane Helene and they have filled one truck trailer and part of a second. She also said that her office had received a grant of $150K to purchase radios for local first responders.

The next meeting will be on November 19th with a joint Commissioners/Council meeting preceding it at 5:00.

Odds & ends

Here is a link to a video, most shot by drones, showing the construction of the new water tower.

Over the weekend this is what the house being built by the Building Trades program at SJC looked like.

The Fire Department has a scarecrow in Milroy Park.

I had a picture of the gas department scarecrow in an earlier post, but the light was much better for this picture.

I had a picture of the Chief Industries scarecrow earlier, but in that picture it did not have a head.

There is a comet in the western sky just after sunset. I have not seen it yet but it is supposed to be quite bright.

The cold north wind on Tuesday created lake-effect rain, but it mostly passed to our west. The forecast is for frost early Thursday.

Early voting is taking place at the Court House. 

A ribbon cutting and four more meetings

Ribbon Cutting for the Brick Streets

On Thursday morning a ribbon cutting was held for the Brick Streets Project.

Before the scissors came out, there were several speakers who thanked the many people who contributed to this project, which was years in the making. Among speakers was Mayor Phillips, former Mayor Wood, Congressman Baird, a representative for Senator Braun, State Senator Niemeyer, State Represenative Kendall Culp, and representatives from Kimley Horn, KIRPC, and EDA.

There was a surprisingly large crowd.

After the event, people could eat donuts. They left a lot, which were then served at the Customer Appreciation Lunch in City Hall from 11:00 until 1:00. The attendance there, at least when I went, was quite small.

Redevelopment Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission met Monday evening. After approving minutes and five claims, it approved a declaratory resolution that does three things. It enlarges the Drexel/Fairgrounds Economic Development Area, it establishes the Van Elementary Residential Allocation Area, and it amends and restates the Drexel/Fairgrounds Economic Development Area. This is part of the process to create a residential TIF area to develop the area north of the Van Rensselaer School. It is also only a start to a process. The matter now goes to the Plan Commission, then the City Council, and finally back to the Redevelopment Commission.

JCEDO reported on the façade grant program. Top Link and Earth Magic have completed their work and have been reimbursed 50% of their costs. Shanley Construction has completed its work but has not yet submitted the required paperwork for reimbursement. The latest grant has been awarded to the new owner of what is called the "Carriage House." (Old maps identify this as used for storage so I do not know the source of the Carriage-House name.)

Below you can see the two new porch columns of the Mr Shanley added to the Forsythe mansion. 

Park Board meeting

The Rensselaer Park Board also met on Monday evening and the meeting has so many people attending it was moved from the conference room at City Hall to the Council Chambers. This was the first meeting at which Heather Hall was present from the beginning as Park Superintendent.

Several guests were recognized and talked about their concerns. Soccer is still concerned about the grass where the old Monnett school was located. 230 kids signed up for the Fall program. Greg Whaley gave an update on the Miniature Train Proposal. A recent Redevelopment Commission meeting provided some money to have some architectural plans prepared, and these were distributed and discussed. No action was taken.

Mrs Hall asked if there were bylaws for either the Park Board or the Rensselaer Community Recreational Development Corporation. (Park Board meeting include both groups that have somewhat different members.) There will be a search for them.

Filson Park is at substantial completion. Left to finish are the street lights, concrete caps on the fountain and behind the stage, benches, and an arch over the entryway. Next week the Prairie Arts Council will install an art work and the bird that sits by eMbers will also be added. Rental prices for the shelter and the park have not yet been determined. There will be a ribbon cutting and various activities on October 24 from 4:00 until 7:30 on October 24.

Project underway or soon to be underway include some facilities upgrades. LaRue Pool may get a facelift and perhaps a slide. Mrs Hall would like to have the mural wrap around the whole building. A pickle ball league has been established. The old tennis courts at Brookside will be moved a bit to the east and converted to four pickle ball courts. This project has received a substantial donation from a Jackson family. The Board approved moving forward with this project and now it is in the lap of the City.  It may take some time to figure out the best uses for the old power plant. 

The softball tournament scheduled for this weekend at the Blacker Fields has been canceled. Not enough teams signed up.

Tourism Commission meeting

The Jasper County Tourism Commission met on Tuesday morning. It heard a presentation from a person from Travel Indiana, which publishes a quarterly tourism magazine. It prints 30,000 copies that are distributed across Indiana and also has a web site promoting tourism. The Commission is considering advertising in the magazine but no decision has been reached yet.

The Carnegie Players had a request for $25,000 to help renovate its building at 220 N Franklin Street. The building needs a new roof, new windows, and a ramp to make it handicapped accessible. At present the Carnegie Players do not have permanent home and whatever venue is available. One of their problems is rehearsal space. The best space in Rensselaer is the auditorium at the High School, but t is used by the high school for three plays a year, the new middle school theater group for one, and Fendig Theater in the summer. Rehearsal before a production can take two months, so there is not a lot of time left to share at the high school. The Carnegie Players' building can have at least two rehearsal sites and the Players are willing to share them with others in the community. It also wants to coordinate with other arts groups in scheduling so their events do not complete. A donor is matching donations for the roof. The Commission approved the entire ask of $25,000.

The Fountain Park Chautauqua asked for $5000 to bring Bruce Barker The Piano Man to the Chautauqua. They did not have a representative to present the case and answer questions. One Commission member suggested that the admission price of $5 was too low. The Commission approved $1500.

Airport Authority Board meeting

The Airport Authority Board met Tuesday evening. They discussed a planned land swap that has a verbal agreement but the details need to be finalized. They also discussed plans for a new nine-unit hangar that will probably be built in 2025. They have been accumulating the funds for this for four years and it the hangar is not built soon some of those funds will go away. A lot of what the Airport does is determined by the rules and regulations of various Federal and State bodies. 

The old hangar building along the taxiway needs to come down but there are no plans yet of when and what will be done on that site. Fuel sales were very strong in September. There was discussion of various maintenance issues and of things not working properly. The meeting lasted a bit less than an hour.

New art exhibit

There is new exhibit at the Fendig Gallery, the Jasper County Art League's Annual Member Show. This year the theme is "Verse Made Visual."

The picture below is a painting, not a photograph.

You can never have too many pots.

If you follow local artists, you will know who did this basket.

The show runs until November 7.

Odds and ends

Below are a few more pictures from the Scarecrow Trail in Milroy Park. The first is from Fase-Kaluf.

There is no sign on this one, but I am pretty sure it is from the City's Electric Utility.

One of the ghosts from the Fendig Theater was taking a nap when I stopped by.

At the next City Council meeting there will be a public hearing about closing the Scott Street rail crossing.

There are four streets next to each other than have rail crossings, McKinley, Franklin, Webster, and Scott.. I am not sure why Scott was chosen for closing. The next street to the east that has a crossing is Melville, and that is three blocks away.

The maples are donning their fall colors.

Beneath this tree a little girls is swinging. Say "Hi" to her if you pass by. She will not answer you.

We may get a frost early next week.

Homecoming and harvest

 Homecoming parade

This past weekend was RCHS Homecoming and on Thursday the school held its annual homecoming parade. I stopped by the line-up to take some pictures because I never know how well the pictures at night will turn out. I was surprised to see so many old cars ready for the parade, but I later learned that the grand marshall was shop teacher Walt Brown who co-founded the JC Cruisers.

In the lineup I took pictures of a couple of floats that I did not capture during the parade

I am not sure which class belonged to each of the class floats.

The FFA had its own float.

The band marched by quickly and my camera did not focus on them well.

At the end of the parade the very loud fire trucks carried the members of the football team.

Lots of candy was thrown to the delight of small and some big kids.

The football team won the game.

October Commissioners meeting

The October Commissioners meeting may have been the shortest of the year, lasting only about one hour. After approving minutes and claims, the Commissioners approved a simple bore request in Keener Township for a fiber optic cable.

The Commissioners and Council have discussed reorganizing the public-defender program for the past year. At this meeting a public-defender plan was presented to the Commissioners for their approval. It was based on a draft that came from the State public defender office. That draft had some changes made in various meetings. It will have a chief public defender officer who will do paperwork currently done by the Courts or the Auditor. The budget should be on the agenda of this month's Council meeting. The Commissioners approved the plan and thereby established the office of the chief public defender.

The Commissioners approved the meeting calendar for the Commissioner meetings in 2025 and also the 2025 holiday schedule. It approved a rezone of 83 acres in Walker Township from A1 to A2 in Walker Township. The owner decided that the land was not worth farming and would be better used for housing. An animal shelter shed was on the agenda but was pushed to another meeting for more information. Community Corrections received approval to replace an employee who left. 

The Sheriff reported that his food vendor is increasing prices by 4%. Also, a service a medical provider was providing free will now have a cost. He submitted and the Commissioners approved a conflict-of-interest form so that one of his employees can be hired to fix a car damaged by a deer. 

NIPSCO is planning a gas-fired peaking plant on its Wheatfield property and has agreed to pay for an analysis of an economic agreement with the County. The County has approved this but has not gotten a final word back from NIPSCO.

The harvest is in full swing and the fields are dry. On the advice of the local fire departments, the Commissioners approved reinstating the burn ban for the next seven days. Bids for various supplies for the Highway Department are going out to be opened in January. The Commissioners approved the contract snow plowing for the same subdivisions that had it last year. The Prosecutor was given permission to fill the position of a deputy prosecutor who is leaving. The meeting was continued to Tuesday, Oct 22 at 8:30 if needed. If the Sparling Annex room is unavailable because of construction, the alternative will be the Commissioners room in the Court House.

Drainage Board meeting

The Drainage Board meeting that followed the Commissioners meeting lasted longer than the Commissioners meeting, which is very unusual. The first item after approval of minutes was an adjustment to the drainage plan for the Genova south parking lot in Rensselaer. They will add a pond and the adjustment was approved with a hold-harmless agreement.

A landowner who has been getting water near the Davidson tile thinks there is blockage in the Davidson tile and would like assistance in finding the blockage. There was a long discussion that followed. The tile is from 1902. No action was taken and he was told to carry a petition to maintain or reconstruct.

The next case on the agenda was from a person who bought a 2+ acre lot in a subdivision that has a house. However, most of the lot is a retention pond that he must maintain and cannot build. He was not at the meeting and no action was taken.

There were two items involving NIPSCO. About a year ago they had received permission to make a temporary crossing of a County ditch on their property to do some work. The work is now done and they would like to leave the crossing, thereby making it permanent. The Board approved contingent on them getting the required permits from other agencies. The second item was a request to cross another ditch with a fiber optic cable. That was also approved.

There was a request for a variance to build a pole-barn building on North McKinley that will be over a tile. Several existing buildings are already over this tile. The request was granted but the owner will now be responsible for that section of the tile and must sign a hold-harmless agreement.

At a meeting on reconstructing the Kelly-Denton tile, the landowners decided they would like the tile replaced with a ditch. The Army Corps of Engineers said no to the ditch but the tile can be replaced because the ditch would drain a wetland. A new public hearing was scheduled for 10:30 on December 2. The location is uncertain because of upcoming remodeling at the Sparling Annex.

Two bids were received for cleaning the Claude May ditch and the lower bid was accepted.

Finally someone in Rensselaer wants to build a garage on a County right-of-way. The house is already on the right-of-way, as are some other homes. The variance was granted with a hold-harmless agreement.

Odds & ends

There were multiple Facebook reports on Tuesday morning of reports of people seeing the Northern Lights.

Steinke Funeral Home shared some pictures of their building when it was the Granlund Funeral Home. I had never heard of name. The Jackson Funeral Home began in 1944 when John Jackson bought the Worland Funeral Business and then in 1949 it purchased the Wright Funeral business. The Wrights were the only funeral home in most of Rensselaer's early history.

The brick streets have fancy new trash cans.

I have seen some harvested fields in the past couple of weeks but on Tuesday I saw a combine harvesting a soybean field along Sparling Avenue.

It stopped and unloaded into a large trailer.

Another sign of fall is the appearance of large preying mantises. For some reason this one thought my bike tire made a good perch.

I have more to write but this post is long enough. More later when I get to it.

The brick streets are open

 Brick Streets

The barricades have been removed and the brick streets (parts of Van Rensselaer and Harrison) are now open to traffic.

On Saturday the still-barricaded Van Rensselaer Street hosted the annual Oktoberfest. I arrived early and enjoyed the German band.

The lead male singer even danced with one of the members of the audience.

I took a couple pictures of the finished bricks. On the left are new bricks that allow water to drain between the bricks and on the right are the old bricks that probably do not drain water well.

The Harrison/Van Rensselaer intersection has new bricks with a herringbone pattern in them. Driving on them is much smoother than driving on the old bricks.

As I said, I came early and there were not a lot of people. Around 5:30 some light rain started, probably an outer band from the remnants of Hurricane Helene. The band decided that the rain was not compatible with their electric equipment and stopped playing. I hung around for a while and then decided to leave before most people usually arrive.

The Truth Bible Church, the new owners of what was the Ritz Theater building, was one of several food vendors.

The Brick Street Ice Cream shop was open for the night. I heard that they had a very busy weekend.

The rain stopped after 6:00 but it restarted again later in the evening.

The remnants of Helene gave us a windy day on Friday but almost no rain. The rain bands stopped just to the south of Jasper County, though Remington may have gotten some showers.

Rensselaer Urban Forestry Council meeting

On Monday the Rensselaer Urban Forestry Council held a special meeting to meet with two representatives from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the administration of a grant of $157,945.77 that the Forestry Council had recently received.

The funding of the grant ultimately came from the Federal government. The Inflation Recovery Act allocated $1.5 billion to be used for trees, and Indiana's share of that  was $4 million. The Indiana DNR awarded 16 grants. The Rensselaer grant was awarded to the Rensselaer Urban Forestry Council and it will be administered by the Jasper-Newton Foundation over the next three years. The grant will fund a database of trees on City property and right-of-ways, community outreach to encourage people to appreciate trees and plant them in their yards, and the planting of 50 trees on City right-of-ways. The grant proposal that was submitted requested support for 100 trees, but the DNR cut that to 50 so the other activities could be supported. Much of the hour-long discussion was about the details of grant administration.

Below the people attending the meeting pose in front of the tulip tree behind the Carnegie Center.

Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission met on Monday evening to discuss a proposed residential housing development program. The plan includes a new TIF district that will have a small area from which taxes will be collected and a fairly large area on the east side of Rensselaer in which the revenues can be spent. The areas that will collect taxes from new development are two blocks north of Van Rensselaer School and a strip of land north of Elm Street and south of the Melt Blown company. Spending can be done for road improvements and sidewalks, utility improvements, parks, public safety, and education. No vote was taken. I believe the vote will be during the October 7 meeting. Then the matter will pass on to the City Council.

Odd & ends

From the legals in the September 26 issue of the Rensselaer Republican:

"Notice it is hereby given that the Remington Board of Zoning Appeals will conduct a public hearing  at the Remington Townhall,,,on Tuesday, October 15, 2024 at 6:00 pm Eastern Standard Timeon Carpenter wind Farm LLC's application for a Special Exception permit to build 12 wind turbines within the town of Remington's extraterritorial jurisdiction."

The notice goes on to note that this is part of a wind farm of 45 turbines, with the other 33 located in areas under the jurisdiction of the Jasper County Board of Zoning Appeal. The Remington Plan Commission had recommended establishing a wind-farm overlay and the Remington Council had passed it.

Meanwhile White County is considering battery storage to complement their wind turbines.

In downtown Rensselaer the building that houses Short Cuts is getting a facelift.

A&B Auto Care has been closed for several weeks and the building remains for sale.

Concrete for the final bit of sidewalk next to the old light plant was poured on Monday.

Scarecrow Trail

Scarecrows are beginning to appear in Milroy Park. The first put up was the Chief Buildings' scarecrow.

The Rensselaer Gas Utility has a scarecrow with a gas meter as its head.

The tin man is from Valley Oaks Health. The sign on the right says. "I shall take the heart. For Brains do not make 1 Happy and happiness is the Best Thing in the World. 

The Carnegie Players sort of advertise their winter play production.

It will be a musical called "Saving Christmas" written by local writer Peter Schulenburg. Auditions are on October 21 and 22 from 6:00 to 8:00 at Saint Augustine;s Church and performances will be December 12, 13, & 14. The Carnegie Players continue to do some very creative and unusual stuff.

I do not know if one can call the cheery Tri Kappa exhibit a scarecrow.

The Little-Cousin-Jasper display is very small and unusual.

Finally

My asters are now blooming, which is a bit depressing because they are among the very last flowers to bloom in the summer or early fall. The bees love them.

Still blooming is the plant shown below, which is a garden vegetable. I have appreciated it this year because it is one of the few plants that my resident bunnies and squirrels as well as the wandering deer have left alone. Do you recognize what it is?

It is abelmoschus esculentus. (Google that name to learn its common name.)