Shovels at SJC, scissors at Plevna

 On Friday there were two events heralding the start of something new. At SJC there was a groundbreaking ceremony signaling the start of the new Building & Trades program. This program, which will train students to build houses, has previously been discussed here.  This sign at the site, (which is not where the first house will be built) lists partnerships and sponsors.

On the left is Ernest Watson, fourth from the left is the chair of the Board of Trustees for SJC Mike Van Eekeren, and on the right is Mayor Phillips. 

A short video showing dirt flying.

I talked to a number of the people attending.  I asked about the prospect of training EMTs and was told that the program needs a medical doctor to be very involved in the program and they have not found one willing to devote the time and effort. The various medical certificate programs will be scheduled a year in advance so prospective students will know when they are coming. The new CDL Academy has started and has had its graduates get their CDL licenses. I met the new CEO and I think we will see a more responsive SJC going forward.

The new signs along the highway have three of the four tracks that the College is offering: Building & Trades, the CDL Academy, and Health Sciences. The fourth is for-credit college courses offered with a cooperating and accredited college.

There is no prospect of the old SJC coming back, but there is a good chance that SJC will become a better neighbor to Rensselaer in the years ahead.

Plevna ribbon cutting and grand opening

The former McAllister dealership is no more. The building is now an outlet for the Plevna Implement Company.

MacAllister was primarily a dealer in Caterpillar equipment and Caterpillar has been focusing more on construction equipment and less on agricultural equipment. MacAllister followed that direction and there is a limited market for construction equipment in Rensselaer. In contrast, Plevna is focused on the agriculture markets, so when they saw a chance to buy the MacAllister building and move to this part of Indiana., they took it. They originally had considered a grand opening in June but decided that was not a good time because planting went late this year. A grand opening during County Fair weeks seemed like a better bet.

There was some miscommunication between the City and Plevna about the timing. The City thought the ribbon cutting would take place at 10:00 but Plevna thought it would take place at noon, when they would start serving lunch to guests. Because the Chamber of Commerce had the ribbon and the Mayor had another commitment at noon, the ribbon cutting did take place at 10:00. At first there was an attempt to line people under the big Plevna sign.

But more people decided to line up by a row of equipment and that is where the ribbon was cut.

Below is a very short video showing the ribbon being cut.

Plevna offers a variety of brands of farm equipment, most brands that are under the AGCO umbrella. In addition to selling new equipment, they service old equipment. Currently they have seven employees and hope to increase that to about 15 in a year. Below is the front of the building, where customers would most likely enter.

Behind the front are storage spaces for parts and a large area for working on equipment. On Thursday it was set up for a lunch. I was surprised at how many place settings there were, but was told that they had sent out 1400 invites to area farmers.

In the back was an enormous combine.

In the supply room I did see one piece of equipment that I could afford.

From the building they have a fine view of airplanes taking off and landing at the airport, which has been very busy this week with crop dusters.

A closing

While the events above celebrate beginnings, another institution announced a closing. The Jasper County Recovery House issued a press release stating that it will be closing because they "could not find adequate employees to keep the center open." The Jasper County center opened in 2018.

County Fair, murals, and a lot of pictures

At the Fair

For the 100th anniversary the Jasper County Fair sought out some new activities. One of them was called Foam Play. A foam cannon shot foam into the parking lot and the kids waded in, getting soaked. I had several grandkids visiting and they enjoyed it. I do not know if four of them enjoyed their wet ride back to Indianapolis.

Also on Sunday there were tethered balloon rides. 

The balloon did not go very high, but there was a long line of people waiting for a ride.

I noticed an antique steam engine west of the Retired Iron barn. My interest in steam engines is explained here.

As I was leaving the balloon area, the fair queen and her court drove up in their queen-mobile. I did not wait to see if they took a balloon ride.

The Health Department had its mobile health clinic on display. I do not know if anyone ever was in it.

The carnival area seemed to be bigger this year than in recent years.

The Shake Barn is always popular.

I have not visited most of the animal barns yet. I stopped by the sheep barn to take a picture.

On Tuesday afternoon bingo was a popular event in the Community Building.

Below are a few of the many food booths at the fair.

Sunset at the Fair.

Murals

On Wednesday morning the City held a dedication ceremony for the water tower mural. First there were short talks by Cameron Mobery and Mayor Jeff Phillips talking about how the project came to be, the obstacles that had to be overcome, and the people who helped make the mural possible. In the picture below are Rein Bontrager, Mayor Phillips, Cameron Moberg, and Ryan Preston.

Behind them is a banner that lists the artists and sponsors. The name of the mural is "Autumn Caught 'Em". The leaves represented to Mr Moberg memories of his times in Rensselaer.

There was no ribbon to cut, but there were confetti guns to shoot.

Here is a short video of the confetti.

After the confetti had fallen, everyone went inside the fence for a picture by the base of the tower. There was a rather large crowd of people who attended this event.

Then to my delight the door at the base of the tower was opened and people could go inside and look up. This is what they saw.

The large gray pipe contains the water main that fills the tank and also releases water from the tank. It is insulated. There is a white pipe to its left and that is an overflow pipe. A ladder goes up to the very top of the tower; there is a passage through the water at the top. A wire alongside is for a safety harness. There are several platforms on the way up so a climber can rest.

I looked at the back of the base to see where the overflow pipe outletted. 

It took Cameron and Ryan seven days to paint this mural and one more day to clear coat it. Here is the finished result. (The best time to take a picture probably is at sunset in the summer.)

Cameron Moberg is now working on a mural in Remington.

I thought downtown Rensselaer was not getting a mural this summer, but I was wrong. Rein Bontrager is painting the back wall of the building owned by Unwind Massage, located next to the City Parking lot. It is best viewed from the bowstring-arch bridge.

City Council meeting

The Rensselaer City Council had a very short meeting on Monday evening. It approved two transfers of funds and a burial rights request for four lots. There were two quotes for a new recycling truck and the Council approved the low bid of $62,640 from Gutwein Motors. The purchase will be funded from monies from the Solid Waste District.

The City employee picnic will be this Friday. The audit of the City has been completed. The Redevelopment Commission will meet on August 5. Two employees have passed their CDL tests and two more will be starting the process. 99 lead sewer lines have been identified. Perhaps by the end of the week blacktopping at the ends of the brick streets will start. The gas department has been moving the gas meter at the high school to the outside of the building.

Brick Streets

This week the work on the Brick Streets has been preparing a foundation for the bricks.

Underneath the gravel is a mesh layer that is meant to keep layers separate and to keep the top layer smooth.

Also this week landscaping was underway.

On Tuesday City Hall got a new flagpole, replacing one on the roof.

Some people may not realize it, but there are bricks under the pavement of Washington Street.

On Wednesday a sand layer was added to a bit of Van Rensselaer and the first bricks were laid down.

Filson Park

The last bit of sidewalk along Kellner Street was finished on Wednesday. There is still sidewalk along Van Rensselaer that needs to be removed.

On Saturday the Art-in-The-Alley event is scheduled for Filson Park. It will be interesting to see how the event turns out in a not-yet-finished park.  Here is the schedule of events:

12:00PM Art in the Alley Opens w/Carnegie Players Improv

2:00PM Free Downtown Mural Tour

3:00PM World Music Special ♫

5:00PM Greg James & the Peaches ♫

7:00PM Art in the Alley Closes!

Murals, a subdivision, and more meetings

 Murals

Below are pictures of the water tower taken on Wednesday. 

A closer look at the base.

Work is being done on the access road to the tower.

The artist, Cameron Moberg, has a mural on a wall inside of eMbers. 

Did you notice the cat in the picture?

Moberg has found the water tower mural the most difficult mural he has ever done. The wind causes his perch high in the sky to sway.

Joint Commissioner/Council meeting

The County Commissioners and Council met in a joint meeting on Tuesday evening. They heard a report from Valley Oaks, a mental health and substance abuse provider. They served 650 people in the County last year and have 30 employees in Jasper County. They have staff in the County school systems and claimed that 12 kids who graduated this year had needed their help sometime in their student years. They have made significant changes since the last time they addressed the Commissioners and Council. They no longer have a wait list but have open access. They have a mobile crisis unit operated with Phoenix Paramedical that operates in the 9 counties they serve. In Lafayette they are opening a primary care facility because people who suffer from mental health issues frequently have other health problems. 

The County Coroner presented a preliminary estimate of the cost of a new morgue building, between $3.5 and $4.2 million. He told the story of recently finding a decomposing body in a car parked near a hotel by the Interstate and the problems of extracting the body, identifying the person, and getting a burial. He said he has had four cases of strangers or homeless people in the last three months and thought there should be clear procedures of how to handle these cases. 

There was a discussion of how to fund EMS. About two thirds of the cost comes from the taxpayer and one third from payment for services. Any serious cases go to the big hospitals. There is a two-year wait time for a new ambulance.

The Commissioners have approved a study of the County's finances by Baker Tilly, which does these studies for many Indiana counties. There was a discussion of the need to replace the sidewalks around the Courthouse, especially the one along Cullen Street which is in awful shape. Later there was a brief discussion of partnering with the City of Rensselaer to provide a sidewalk from the City to the Fairgrounds if grant funding can be found.

There was a discussion of a new public defenders' office, including the cost of fringe benefits and where they could be located. One possibility is to use space currently used to store voting machines, but then a place for that storage would have to be found. Costs of the public defenders' office are compensated 40% by the State.

There was support for a more formal process to be used by entities applying for financing.

No actions were taken at this meeting because its purpose is to share information and opinions between the Commissioners and the Council. 

County Council meeting

Much of the County Council meeting that followed the Joint meeting was for several large additional appropriations. The Commissioners earlier had approved a request from the Jail to move the chiller from the roof to the ground. The equipment is nearing end of life and uses freon, which can no longer be manufactured. The Council approved an appropriation of $700,000 for the project. Trane will serve as the general contractor and will seek bids for the various parts of the project. It also approved $50,000 for a five-year maintenance agreement for the x-ray machine used at the jail to search for illicit items of incoming prisoners.  

A second large appropriation, this for $600,000, was approved for the renovation of the health department building. Some smaller additional appropriations were approved for software fees for the Recorder's Office. 

An appropriation tabled at a previous meeting for the purchase of a trailer for the Health Department and moving some equipment around was also passed.

There were several tax abatements that should have been approved at this meeting, but only one, Dunns Bridge #1, had all the required paperwork submitted. It was approved. Others from REMC, FBI, and for a dairy digester were tabled until the next meeting, which will be the August 20 budget meeting. At that meeting the Council will also consider how the various parts of the Local Income Tax (LIT) can be moved around, reducing some parts to increase other parts.

Rensselaer Plan Commission meeting

There was one big item on the agenda of the Rensselaer Plan Commission meeting Thursday evening, a preliminary plat for St. Joseph's Building and Trades Subdivision. The map of the proposed subdivision, shown below, envisions 30 building sites with three cul-de-sacs off Sparling Avenue. The plan is to build one house a year, or if there are enough students interested, perhaps two. The plat was not approved but tabled because a technical review showed there were details that needed to be ironed out. However, the Commission approved granting a building permit for a first house to be located at the corner of Sparlng and Daugherty Roads. 

The project will have four phases. The first phase will build in the five lots along Daugherty Road. Then lots 6-14, followed by lots 15-23, and finally lots 24-30 will follow. I will not live long enough to see this project finished. (In case you do not know where this is located, it is south of the Health Department building, on the west side of Sparling Avenue, where the Halleck Center parking lot and the softball field were located.)

A few years ago RCHS dropped its building trades practice of building a house each year and Saint Joe is trying to replace that program, opening it up to other schools. However, to be ready to build a house requires prior preparation in preliminary courses and those courses are lacking in some area schools and have apparently atrophied locally. It may take some time to build up this program. There may be only two or three students participating in the program for the coming year.

There will be a ground-breaking ceremony on Thursday, July 25 at 1:00. ( Also on the 25th but at 10:00, the Plevna Implement Company, which purchased what was the MacAllister facility next to the Airport, is planning a grand opening.)

SJC seems to have adopted a new logo. (See the press release linked above.)

A few days ago a SJC alum posted on Facebook the picture of a sign I had in a post at the end of June. The sign said "Future Building Site of Saint Joseph's Building & Trades". The alum interpreted that to mean SJC planned to build a building for the Building &  Trades program, not that the program planned to build houses. I am not sure that the people involved ever realized that their outrage was based on a misunderstanding.

Before the meeting, I was told that on Thursday the football team from Faith Christian High School in Lafayette was taking parts of the stands at the football field to transfer to their school. The entire stands will end up there.

Rensselaer BZA meeting

The Rensselaer BZA had an uneventful meeting Thursday evening. They approved another extension for a building permit for a house on Airport Road. The owner said her original contractor died, then she got cancer, and now it is very difficult to find people to do work. A building permit requires the house be finished n a year.

The BZA also approved a variance of use for a residence on E Washington. The property is in a business zone but has always been a residence. It is changing ownership and thus needs a new variance. 

The zoning ordinance has too many rules and regulations.

Odds & ends

Workers are filling Van Rensselaer with gravel to get it ready for the bricks.

The merchants along Van Rensselaer have had a hard time during this construction. They will be very happy when it is finished.

Our rains were not enough to get the River to minor flood stage; it missed by just a few inches. The rains were enough to pop up mushrooms all over Rensselaer.

Lots happening in July

 Murals

Work on this summer's murals has begun. Below is a picture taken on Saturday morning of the water tower near I-65. (Note to self: the lighting will be better in the afternoon,)

A closer look.

The artist is Cameron Moberg. He did one other mural in Rensselaer this year, a wall in the gymnasium at the Rensselaer Middle School. After he finishes the tower, he will do a mural in Remington.

The City of Rensselaer Facebook page has an earlier view of this mural.

One the way back from taking the above pictures, I encountered some wildlife that I rarely see.

Seussical

The Fendig Theatre for Children presented Seussical last week. Seussical is far from my favorite play, but it was an excellent choice for a Theatre for Children. It had excellent and very colorful costumes, energetic choreography, and was well cast. On Friday night I thought the sound track was too loud as it drowned out some of the solo singers but I was told that the volume was lower on Saturday. (In the distant past, they had a pit band. It would be nice to bring it back.)

Before the performance there was an announcement that people should not take pictures, so I did not. However, I have several pictures taken on Wednesday at a preview at the Cup of Joy Cafe, Too. Pictured below are Thing 2, Thing 1, Sour Kangaroo, and Horton the Elephant. The story is a mishmash of 15 books by Dr. Seuss, with most of the plot involving Horton.

The Cat in the Hat had a major role and did an excellent job.

Next year will be the 50th year for the Summer Theater. The first performance I saw was The Hobbit in 1978. It was, if I remember correctly, performed in the basement of St Augustine Church and they cut battle scenes because they seemed too violent. The first play one of my children was in was Annie in 1984. My kids were in crowd scenes or with only one or two lines, with one exception. A son played Winthrop in the Music Man (1992) and did an excellent job.

Sidewalks

Almost all of the concrete work is finished for the Brick Street Project. On Thursday a separator strip had been poured where Van Rensselaer meets the highway.

Also on Thursday the sidewalk on Harrison was being poured.

On Friday the sidewalk on Ayda's corner was finished

as was the sidewalk on Harrison next to the Courthouse.

Below is a picture taken on Friday of the crossing of Harrison next to SR 114.

On Saturday the last bit of sidewalk was poured, at the end of the alley that leads to Van Rensselaer Street.

Next the contractors will fill the streets with dirt and gravel to get them ready for the bricks.

Jasper County Plan Commission meeting

The Jasper County Plan Commission met Monday evening with a two-part item on its agenda, a rezone from A1 to A2 and a primary approval of a two-lot subdivision. The property is in Barkley Township and the parcel is about ten acres, which is large enough for only one residence because it is zoned A1. The purpose of the change in zoning was to allow the establishment of a two-lot subdivision, which would allow a second residence to be placed on this ten acre lot. Both requests passed.

Odds & ends

As mentioned in the previous post, the Clinic of Family Medicine has moved into its new Washington Street location. Below is a picture of the reception area.

All clinics seem to have hallways. Here is the one for the Clinic of Family Medicine. The interior has been completely remodeled.

A bit down the street the exterior of Earth Body Magic Potions is having its façade renewed.

On Sunday the Good Samaritan Food Pantry had an open house at their new location. They had a ribbon cutting in April.

The Iroquois River did not hit flood stage after the rains that came with the remnants of Beryl, but the recent rains since then may send it to flood stage. As I write this it is at 10.52 feet and still rising.

The Japanese beetles are back but do not seem to be as bad as they were a few years ago.

I had an unexpected and quite improbable meeting on Sunday morning as I was leaving the house. A car drove by and then turned around and out popped a former SJC colleague of mine. He was returning to his home in Bloomington and had gotten off the Interstate because it was congested. We had a short chat because I was on my way to church and did not want to be late. We agreed that SJC had been poorly run and the problem was not just a few people at the top but it ran deep.

The County Fair is coming. Enjoy it.