It is open

On Friday the Washington Street bridge opened after a ribbon cutting ceremony. The Rensselaer Republican has the names of the people in the picture.

 A few minutes after the ribbon cutting a truck arrived to pick up the road-closed signs.

 When the County Commissioners allowed the construction company to use the lot next to the post office for equipment staging, they asked the company to tear up the concrete pad when they were finished. The demolition of the pad has begun.

In other construction news, the Salyer apartments on Elza Street are now being rented. Sayler rentals posted video guided tours of a unit that can be found on its facebook page. In Newton County work has begun on water and sewer infrastructure for the Fair Oaks Farms. There was a ceremonial groundbreaking earlier this week. See here and here.

The Fendig Gallery of the Carnegie Center has a new exhibit of two Lafayette watercolorists. The picture below is titled "Connected or Disconnected?".

The one below it called "Small Egrets."

The show runs through December 29.

In addition to the bids mentioned in the last post, the City Council meeting on Monday took up a wide variety of items. It approved a proposal to issue to police officers their duty weapons after serving twenty years. It made some changes in funding sources to pay elected officials; the state auditors did not like the current practice. There was a small decrease in the gas tracker. Discussion of the future of the INDOT property on Maple Street is ongoing. The State wants to sell the property to the City for its assessed valuation. The City is concerned about future pollution issues because the property once had gas tanks that leaked. To insure against any damages would cost $5000 per year.

The Council approved the Cemetery's request to trade in a mower and purchase a new one. The City will have the Christmas holiday on Tuesday after Christmas rather than Friday before. The second December Council meeting will be Wednesday, Dec 27 at 6:00. The City granted $250 to the American Legion for its annual Thanksgiving Dinner that is open to all. The City Attorney noted that opioid litigation that the Council had agreed to join could possibly cost the City. If the settlement were in services or goods, the law firm bringing the case would want compensation based on the value of those goods and services. Finally, the utility office noted that its insertion machine used to send out bills has never functioned well and wanted a committee to explore options.