Three meetings

August’s Commissioners meeting was remarkably short--it only lasted an hour. There was not much on the agenda or off the agenda.

The director of economic development for Pulaski County asked if their bike-trail system could use some Jasper County roads. Pulaski County has an OCRA grant to develop the system and the county is trying to link all the communities. There are two places along the their western edge where the Jasper County roads are in better shape (paved rather than gravel) than the Pulaski County roads. The Commissioners agreed to his request. 

The representative from the Sheriff’s department was late because of a serious accident that morning and the coroner jumped in to say that the northern annex was having problems with rot in walls. He was allowed to seek estimates of how the problems could be fixed. He mentioned that his office had had 46 cases this year so far. 

A sheriff’s deputy reported that the communication tower is still not operating and that communication had been bad for the morning accident. Most of his discussion was about jail transport. A female transport officer who was pregnant had taken a dispatch job and so he wanted the department to have permission to fill the vacancy and also to retain a part-time officer who was working transport and court-house security. The request was granted.

The proposals for matching grants for road repairs have been submitted. Jasper the Bison traveled to Indianapolis on Sunday and is now standing in the little lawn by the glass barn (I have no idea where that is) with 49 friends. After a few routine items the meeting was adjourned. 

The Drainage Board met in the afternoon. There was a long discussion about a request to lower a drainage tile on the Jasper Newton border and eventually the Board decided that the matter needed to be handled by the joint Newton-Jasper Drainage Board. Next was discussion of a plan to install fiber optic cable to the Whispering Pines subdivision. It came before the Board because there are drainage tiles in the subdivision. There is disagreement between the surveyor and the company that is supposed to be fixing the Gangloff tile that was damaged when a fiber optic cable was installed along SR 114. There were a few other items discussed, including mention that there will be a meeting of the joint Benton-Jasper Drainage Board on Aug 22 at 9:00 am.

In the evening the Rensselaer Park Board and Park Corporation met. Most of the meeting was about soccer. About half way through, a representative of the soccer program arrived. In the next week the future of the program will probably be decided. If SJC wants to continue sponsoring it, it will need to provide the fields. If the program uses the park fields, the Park Board wants it to agree to become a park program in 2017. We will see what happens. 

The Staddon Field property still has not transferred. Work is scheduled to begin this week on the gazebo roof in Hal Gray Park.

A new piece of equipment has arrived on the construction site on Lincoln Street.

High school sports teams are beginning practices. My grandchildren in the Indianapolis area are already back to school. Below is the running group for middle school kids that has been exercising for several weeks. There were a lot of them.

There is a for-sale sign in front of the bowling alley building. I cannot find it on the Internet.