High humidity

It seems that every year when the LaRue Pool closes, we get some of the hottest days of the year. On Thursday the weather station downtown reported that the dew point was 80 degrees and it felt like 109 degrees. This morning the dew point was 76 degrees. The temperatures are not unusually high but the dew points are awful.

We have not had a decent rain in August and the river is very low. I noticed a picnic bench in the river under the College Street Bridge. The river will have to get a little lower before people will be able to use it.

 The apartment fire was smoldering most of the day on Thursday. In the afternoon the smoke was intense enough to bring a small fire truck to dowse the embers.

 Friday morning more of the building had collapsed. The Rensselaer Republican reported that it was structurally unsound so the state fire marshall had not completed his investigation.

The Republican also had a story on how the community has responded to help the people affected by the fire. If you are on Facebook, you probably saw some of the efforts to help.

The people doing the Red Cross blood drive on Thursday had a bad day. First they got caught in the delay on I-65 caused by a hazmat fire. Then when they finally arrived at the Knight of Columbus Hall, they could not get their Internet connection to work. They ended up canceling the drive.

 On a brighter note, the gazebo in Hal Gray Park is getting its new roof.

 The roof is being installed on the building for the high water treatment plant and a rebar shell is being put into place in the eastern pit.

 Forms are being erected in the western pit around the concrete base poured earlier this week.

Construction at the National Gypsum plant is still in the dirt-moving stages. I am always impressed at how much dirt has to be moved before construction begins. The first pile at the site now has an impressive growth of weeds.

Jasper the county bison is now in second place in the voting on Facebook. We are being whipped by tiny Martin County. I expected that we would have trouble with some of the big counties, but did not expect a county a third our size would outvote us. Go here to vote: https://a.pgtb.me/nLRbbr (Jasper is on the second page.)