Meetings 11-09-2015

The City Council had a routine meeting on Monday. After some preliminaries, Trace Bowles of the electrical department said that IMPA would be increasing rates a bit for 2016. The effect would be to increase the city's cost by a bit over $100,000. He suggested that Rensselaer needs a rate study, which means that higher electrical rates are coming. The main factor behind the increased costs is the ever stricter regulations for coal-fired generators.

The City opened bids for unleaded gas, diesel, and tire repair. The bids will be taken under consideration. Ceres Solutions had the low bid for unleaded, Superior Petroleum for diesel, and CTS Tires had the only bid for the many different kinds of tire repair.

The Council approved a request for funds for a breakfast for the two fall sports teams that won sectionals, the girls cross country team and the boys soccer team. The breakfast will be held on Thursday at 7:00 am.

The Council approved the purchase of pick-up trucks for the cemetery and the park department. In administrative comments, the Mayor noted that there will be a Veterans Day ceremony at Weston Cemetery on 11-11 at 11:00. Councilman Barton announced that the Park Board will have a special meeting for the public to comment on plans for changes to the parks on December 7 at 7:00 pm at the library.

In other announcements or news, the police chief said there would be a "Coffee with a Cop" event at Ayda's on Thursday at 7:00 in the evening. He also received permission to get quotes to replace a 2008 squad car that has been having mechanical problems. The park superintendent announced that water has been turned off in the parks. The fire department chief reported that over 1200 people went through the Trunk or Treat line on Halloween. Grimmer construction has begun putting in the water main to I-65 and, weather permitting, should be ready to hook it up in 60 to 90 days.

After the meeting, I stopped by the Library and noticed that the Library Board meeting was still in progress. I entered during a presentation about the library and the Internet Archive digitizing high school year books. The files will be stored on the archive.org website but will be linked from the library web pages. I could make out enough of the url on the screen to find an example of what they are doing--check here. When the project is finished, there will be a big announcement from the library. I suspect that many people will find this useful. In addition to Chaos, the Rensselear High School yearbook, there will be files of the KV yearbooks and also some of the high schools that no longer exist. All of this is being done at no cost to the Jasper County Libraries. There was mention of some of the genealogical resources also being put on line.

I need a picture for the post and here is my attempt to capture the morning sky on Sunday. I was up before dawn and noticed that the waning moon, Venus, and Jupiter were bright in the morning sky. (Mars was also there, but not bright enough to notice. The very bright light on the bottom is a street light.) It was much more impressive to the eye than this picture captures.