Odds and Ends 05-12-2016 (updated)

The Rensselaer Republican had a front-page article on the sale of Jasper Junction in its May 12 edition. Jasper Junction is no longer owned and operated by CDC Resources, but it will, at least for the time being, continue to operate as it has in the past. The new owners want to expand the booths. They will continue to accept donations of used and unwanted items.

Perhaps people will be less willing to donate unwanted items now that it is privately owned. However, there are several donation boxes in Rensselaer, such as the one shown below that is in the College Mall, and these boxes are privately owned and seem to attract plenty of donations.

I have had an inside look at this story because I am on the board of directors of CDC Resources. CDC Resources has a thrift store in Monticello. It was originally located in their office complex that is just south of Indiana Beach. A fire before I joined the board in 2011 led to a relocation of the thrift store to a site near the downtown and at the new location the thrift store did much better than it had done at is previous location. Location matters a lot in retail. CDC Resources has long wanted to relocated the Jasper County thrift store to Rensselaer. The first step was selling Jasper Junction. The next step will be to find a suitable site in Rensselaer. Currently there seems to be no building that would work well. Do you have any suggestions?

The Republican also had an article this week on the renovation of the old Oddfellows Building. Its facade is being restored to look like what it originally looked like, though without color photos to guide the restoration, it is hard to tell exactly what the building looked like originally.  A look at stage one of remodeling is here.

The article said that when this project is completed, the owner will start restoring the old bottling plant/laundry on the corner of Clark and Cullen.

INDOT is moving ahead with widening I-65 to three lanes in each direction. Contracts for the work from Lowell to SR 10 will be let later this year.

The Family Film Festival at Fountain Stone Theaters will begin on June 8. The nine movies (or eight of the nine) that will be shown can be found here.

Embers Venue is starting a new project, but I am not sure what it is.

When I was at the library board meeting on Monday, one board member asked about a grant from REMC. The explanation was that the library cannot spend its regular funds for prizes, so when they have contests as they do in the summer with prizes, the prizes must be donated.

On Thursday volunteers were repairing the rain garden in Potawatomie Park that was planted in late 2014. It was damaged by the severe flooding last year and some of the plants that were supposed to withstand wet conditions did not survive the flood. Before the flood, it was thriving.




Two plants not bothered by the flooding were blue flag, which is a native iris, and swamp milkweed. (I was able to identify the swamp milkweed from the stems and seed casings left from last year.) Swamp milkweed does not look much like regular milkweed. The leaves are very different and the flower is brighter.

I asked what they were planting and was given some Latin names. We will see how the garden does this year. I expect fine displays of blue flag and swamp milkweed.

On Thursday workers were installing the white pipes you can see in the picture below at the site of the high water treatment plant on Lincoln. I have no idea what their purpose is.

Update: The Jasper County Tourism Board has a flyer promoting Jasper County. Ten thousand have been ordered and they will be distributed in the racks of brochures that you see in visitor centers and other places people pick up brochures of local attractions. Click here for the pdf version.