Updates and meetings (pt 2)

The walls of the old Donnelly laundromat building are now down.

 The debris has not yet been removed.

 There is a machine on the site that grinds cement blocks into gravel-sized pieces.

 The slab of the Park View apartment building that was destroyed by fire was gone on Tuesday when I stopped by.

 The County Council met on Tuesday. There were four items on the agenda, three requests for additional appropriations and one for a transfer. The additional appropriations were for Local Emergency Planning, the Court, and the Sheriff's office. Judge Ahler wanted enough additional funds to pay his second court reporter the same as the first. (He had hired two court reporters to replace one that retired with about 30 years of experience--the job takes time to learn.) In January's meeting the Sheriff had requested a transfer of funds to order a new computer server and now he wanted additional appropriations to replace those funds, something that he had told the council he would be doing. (There was a technical reason he could not just request the additional appropriation the first time--the rules for county councils are complicated.)

A few interesting bits emerged from the discussion. The National Weather Service recently held training for storm spotters and about 60 people attended. Emergency management will be involved with disaster training at the KV High School in early April. Madison County was the victim of a cyber attack last year and the cost of that attack was about $200,000.

The Board made appointments to the Redevelopment Commission (which rarely meets) and the Alcohol Review Board (which usually meets every month in the Rensselaer City Hall). The Council would like to begin discussion of the local Income tax at the March meeting. Several Council members had toured the animal shelter and were impressed with how well it was organized.

The hotel that Fair Oaks will be building will be a Marriott. There was a question with no answer of when the travel center at the intersection of I-65 and SR-10 will be built. One of the hold ups has been that the developer could not find a sit-down restaurant interested in being part of the facility.

Earlier in the evening the Jasper County Historical Society met. Their presentation was on items in their fabric collection that are currently on display.

The clothing above is from the turn of the 19th century and that below is from the 1920s and 1930s.

 The presentation is available on Facebook. (Click here.)

Finally, walkways have been installed at the high rate treatment plant on Lincoln Street.