An opening and a closing and more meetings

If the number of people attending is the measure of success, the grand opening of the rebuilt Marathon by the tracks, also known as Shorty's Marathon, was a huge success. There were many people who were there to take advantage of the free food.

When the radio station announced that gas was only $1.989, lines quickly formed at the pumps.

The Indiana Lottery had a tent. If you purchased $5.00 of Lottery tickets inside, you could spin a wheel and were guaranteed to win something. When I came back to fill up my gas tank a bit after 2:00, the Lottery tent was gone--perhaps they ran out of things to give away.

Below is the ribbon cutting. The people in the background to the left are in the food line.

It was nice to see a new store opening, but  this morning Facebook had news of a closing. Here is the message from Doggers:

Many of you may have already heard, but we wanted to announce that we will be closing our Rensselaer location at the end of August. Our projected closing date is set for Wednesday August 30th. This will be the last day that we will be open.

There were a couple of County meetings on Monday evening. The Planning Commission had a very short meeting in which they approved a change from A2  to R1 for a woman who wanted to separate a house from a farm property so she could sell it. She said she was tired of renting it and wanted to sell. The case had been on the agenda last month but she had not followed all the procedures correctly so the decision had been postponed a month.

The BZA revisited a case of a man who wants to build storage lockers on SR 10 between DeMotte and Wheatfield. The property is zoned commercial, but storage lockers are a special case. There is no zoning that allows storage lockers; to build them you must go before the BZA and get a special exception. The plan was to build 60 units as a first phase. The back of the units would be a solid wall with no openings. This wall would face the homes that are on the south side of the property.

Three people showed up to express concerns. One said that his realtor told him that the units would reduce his property values by $10,000. His neighbor worried that there would be a dumpster in the back and he did not want that. A lady from the credit union on the adjacent property did not want a barbed wire fence and did want security cameras.

Members of board worried that the amount of asphalt he was planning might cause a drainage issue and advised him to check with the Drainage Board. After much discussion, the board decided he needed to provide more detailed information the item will come up again at next month's meeting.

Update: This just popped up on Facebook from the Pub III:

To our patrons...we have decided NOT to renew our lease at the pub. This is our decision totally, and has nothing to do with the building owners....they have been nothing but supportive to us since day one....we will miss all of your smiling faces, stories and laughter....we cant express our gratitude enough for all of your support. THANK YOU-THANK YOU-THANKYOU from the bottom of our hearts!
Anyone with gift certificates, please use them at your earliest convenience.
If you would be interested in leasing or buying, i can get contact information to you.
Our last business day will be August 19th.