Odds and ends at the end of January

The weather has limited my time outside, but I have noticed a few new things in the past week or so. There is a new sign in the window of the old Schumacher Building for the Johnson Car Company.

In the downtown the window of the empty building between the antique store and the bank has been gathering stuff.

 

In the College Square Mall, the signage for the Indiana Academy of Mixed Martial Arts is now up. Peeking inside, one can see a large floor mat and a big punching bag. The web address on the window takes one to a parked web page--maybe it is still under construction. A hand-lettered sign says that they are having an early enrollment on January 30 at 11 a.m. and a grand opening on February 13th.
(Update: This site previously had a payday loan place called Check 'n Go.)

There is a new sign replacing the Payroll Advance sign on the building that also houses Jackson-Hewitt. This is the building that had an addition to its back a few months ago. The new sign announces that we now have a pawn shop in Rensselaer. I stopped by and found that they were putting out merchandise--some electronics, guns, jewelry, musical instruments, and what looked like a lot of either DVDs or VHS tapes. They said that they have already made some pawn loans, and have been open for that business for about a week. A sign in the window says they fix computers. They will still make payday loans.

And they had never heard of Rensselaer Adventures.

 

I do not have a picture  of it, but there is also a second hand store that I had not noticed before in with the pool store next to the old Kirby Risk building. It is open only on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

When the weather is awful, one can still explore Rensselaer on the Internet. In preparing another post, I found the web page for Rensselaer Septic Tanks. It is a business run by the Jacksons, and was an extension of their burial vault business. I did not know that when I wrote about it in August, 2009.

A number of businesses have Facebook pages, some of them quite active. Fair Oaks Farms is active, as is the Doghouse (which I just discovered). Doghouse also has a website--is there any other Rensselaer busines with as sophisticated a web presence? I also recently discovered the Facebook pages of the First Christian Church and Saint Augustines Church (which is very new.)

Other groups in Rensselaer that have Facebook pages and that are at least somewhat active are the Chamber of Commerce and Visit Rensselaer, which is from Mainstreet.

What other groups or organizations in Rensselaer are using Facebook to communicate with fans or members?

Update: The Jasper County Library has a Facebook page here.  Rensselaer Rotary has a Facebook page, but it has few fans and few updates.  Their webpage is here.

Update 2: The Ritz Cinema has a facebook page here. Right now it only has ten fans.