Digging

The old tanks at the Marathon by the tracks were removed several days ago.

The tanks are now gone and holes have been dug for new tanks.

On Wednesday I noticed digging by GRG Auto Repairs. I suspect that soil contaminated by a leaking tank was being removed. Later in the day new dirt was being brought in.

The construction trailer for the high rate treatment plant is gone. Below is a picture showing the truck getting ready to haul it away.

The site remains busy with landscaping. A crew was planting maple and tulip trees by the lift station on Wednesday. Prairie plants being placed near Lincoln include prairie dropseed (a grass), narrow leaf blue star, and magnus conflower (a purple coneflower).

The Chicago Tribune had an article about the SJC baseball team and their invitation to the NCAA Division II tournament. The writer could not resist making a couple disparaging remarks about our location.

 I was wondering if "2017" would get added to the west side of the Hansen Recreation Center but I should have known that the baseball people would take care of that.

 As I was on my way to take the picture above, I saw a Pepsi truck loading up all the Pepsi vending machines that were on campus. There are a lot of details that have to be attended to as the campus shuts down.

The headquarters for those that remain is now Drexel Hall. It has City utilities and is completely separated from the water and heating of the main campus.

Several streets are being treated with something called microsurfacing. It smooths the surface, fills small cracks, and protects the pavement. Below is a section of Abigail Street that had the treatment Wednesday afternoon. The untreated strip is pavement over a water main that was installed a few years ago.

On Thursday morning the crew was back coating the untreated strip. They were having some technical difficulties and had to back up and redo part of it.

The dry weather has lots of tractors in the fields. The high winds blow clouds dirt stirred up by the planting.

Track sectionals are taking place this week. The girls results are here. For quite a few years Valparaiso was in this sectional and won it every year. However, if you look at the sectional records, only two are held by Valparaiso athletes. Six are held by Rensselaer girls, five by KV girls, and one each by girls from West Central, Hebron, and Morgan Township. Boys sectionals are tonight.

Several groups of students that could not visit the Jasper County Airport on the recent Career Day are making visits this week. They can get the same information about maintenance that the Career Day visitors received and are getting info on airport markings and how the pilots know where to go.