Coming soon

There are a number of new businesses opening in Rensselaer. Some sort of motorcycle business is moving into the old gas station on the corner of Weston and Washington. The sign in the window says Rich's Cycle Solutions.

 The little building between the Uptown Girls salon and the new office for H&R Block used to be a tanning salon, Sunchasers, I believe. It is being remodeled and will become some other kind of salon.

 The former Sears store in the College Square Mall that was most recently a fireworks store is being remodeled. On the wall are slogans in crude lettering saying things like "Let Your Past Go," "Celebrate being different," and "Listen to what your body is telling you." Because I had no idea what these things meant, I asked at Kem's what they knew. One of the workers said that a thrift store/coffee house would be opening there. I thought that those two things made a rather strange juxtaposition.

Meanwhile, Rensselaer has a new coffee bar, Jazzman's Cafe and Bakery. It is a very attractive little shop in Halleck Center near the SJC Bookstore. It is aimed at the students, but it is open to anyone. They have several varieties of coffee and cookies and pastries for sale. It is run by Sodexo, the food service company that has the contract to provide SJC meals in the Halleck Center cafeteria. Soxdexo provides food service at many colleges and universities.

However, the most interesting coming-soon business is west of Rensselaer on SR 114. Tractor Supply Co has a sign announcing a new store and equipment was clearing a row of trees. (You can just see the excavator in the picture below next to the trees that it is getting ready to destroy.) The site is west of Kirby Risk, but not adjacent to it.

As I was out collecting pictures, I noticed that setup for tomorrow's auction at Monnett School was underway. If you need large numbers of very small, colorful chairs, you better get to this auction.

On another note, I stopped by the Gas Department's Open House today. It was pretty well attended. The purpose of the event is to highlight pipeline awareness--do not excavate without calling 811 to check for what lies beneath the ground. Hitting a pipeline is not a happy event. One of the vendors there was showing GIS mapping, which is available for Jasper County at jasper.in.wthgis.com/. And I learned that LED light bulbs are not nearly as expensive as they used to be, but are still a bit too expensive for me.