More odds and ends, Sept 22, 2014

"Odds and Ends" is becoming a common title.

Work has started on the MacAllister Machinery building east of the airport. At this point all that is happening is moving dirt.

 Forms are in place to pour a foundation for the building trades house on Scott Street.

 This afternoon two workers were busy pressure washign the southeast side of the Court House. This is the first of several steps to preserve the exterior.

This morning there were about five crews of NIPSCO workers at the substation on Melville working on hooking up the new 69K transmission lines. They should be about finished. Maybe there will be a progress report at tonight's city council meeting.

At SJC trenching around Halleck is almost complete. The trenching is installing drainage tile to prevent water from entering the basement. Several weeks ago I saw the start of this project, but did not recognize what it was.

 More trenching is in the future. SJC finally announced to its community that the power plant is converting from coal to gas and the gas line installation will begin Sept 29. It will run down Kenkel Road, not the route I would have predicted.

SJC homecoming took place this past weekend. (SJC won its football game.) I took the opportunity to visit their new business classrooms that have lots of fancy electronics and lots of clocks. Though it is not an issue for me, I do wonder if I would have found good ways to use this stuff if it had been available when I was teaching.

Weather may have dampened homecoming spirits a bit. The high winds kept the climbing wall on the ground.

The rain did interrupt the St. Augustine Fall Frolic. We can hope that Oktoberfest will have better weather.

Addendum: Last week my son sent me a clipping from the Illinois Agrinews, a newspaper covering agriculture. The article was about Fair Oaks Farms, and it listed what the Farms sees in the future: the Pig Adventure building opening in March, 2015, then a crop education building opening mid to late 2015, and finally an egg farm and education facility opening late 2015 or early 2016.