Odds and ends, beginning of July

I spent a few days this week out of town. When I left, I noticed that Comfort Suites was open.

I missed both City Council meetings this month because of travel. The minutes of the first meeting I missed are here. (The minutes of the second meeting will not be publicly available until after they are approved at the first July meeting.) I also missed the Rensselaer BZA meeting with the old Biggs farm item on the agenda.

The JCEDO newsletter for July devoted much of its page to the designation of the Kankakee River as a National Water Trail. The designation does not change much but will give the river more publicity as place for recreation. For more, see here.

NICHES has some upcoming events in our area. There will be a viewing of the video “Fisher Oak Savanna Nature Preserve” at the Jasper Foundation (Carnegie Building in Rensselaer) on Tuesday July 12 at 6 pm CT and guided walks at Holley Savanna on July 6 at 5 pm CT and another at the Fisher Oak Savanna on July 24 from 2 until 4 pm CT.

The sign for the soon-to-be-opened Dollar Tree is in place and on Friday workers were busy stocking shelves.

At SJC Halas Hall is getting more than a new roof. It is getting a new facade.

See this picture for an earlier view.

Also at SJC, management of the College Bookstore is being transferred to Sodexo, the company that manages food service. There are new administrators being hired--I do not think any top administrators who were there when I retired in 2010 are still there.

When I returned from my latest road trip, I returned via US 231 to see what progress had been made. As of Thursday almost all the resurfacing had been completed. There were still a few approaches of side roads that needed work. Nothing had been done on the strip of highway that crosses Mount Calvary Road. Perhaps work will wait until the highway is moved a bit to the east to make the intersection less dangerous.

The farmers market has seasonal veggies for sale. I was told that a vendor with blueberries had sold out and left before I arrived. I was impressed with some enormous cabbages.