More from Monday's Meetings (part 2)

The Drainage Board met for its monthly meeting on March 5 with a long agenda. Several items were of local interest. The proposed solar park on the north side of town had a few changes in its plans for relocating a tile that runs through the site and these plans were approved. It also had a consultant who told them that the change in ground cover would result in less runoff. The runoff will end up in the School House Ditch, which is not a County ditch but rather one controlled by the Rensselaer School Corporation. There was the suggestion that perhaps there was a need to get an agreement with the School Corporation, but representatives from the City said that the City has an agreement with them.

Weston Cemetery would like to tear down its present office building and rebuild on approximately the same site. The old building infringes on the easement of the Maxwell Ditch and the new one would as well, though perhaps not quite as much. It was noted that there is easy access to the ditch from the east side and that the City maintains it. The plans were approved.

There were a couple of items from the northern part of the County. Helena Chemical, which sells farm chemicals and has an office near DeMotte, wants to build a new office and truck scale. It was noted that their drainage plans were better than what they have now and were approved. U-Locks storage near Wheatfield had a consultant present a drainage plan that was approved. I am not sure if this is the same proposed storage area that was subject to several contentious meetings of the Planning Commission or BZA.

On Monday evening the Park Board met. They had a long discussion about the proposed dog park on Bunkum Road. They discussed rules and fees, examining what other area dog parks are doing. Nothing was resolved and the members were asked to look what other dog parks have and decide which parts of the various rules they think would work for Rensselaer.

The Board did vote to use the logo that is currently being used for the Parks For People campaign as the Park logo.

Although it is down the list a bit in terms of priorities, enough money may be raised by the Parks For People campaign to finance a splash pad. The Board discussed whether the best location for a splash pad would be inside the fence of LaRue Pool or outside, and the consensus was that it would be better to locate it outside the fence, making it available when the pool was not open. There was also a discussion of whether a shelter could be enclosed so it would be available during inclement weather and the Park Superintendent mentioned that the Gifford Shelter had been constructed so it could be enclosed and so it could have a fireplace.

The next Park Board meeting will be April 2.

I was not sure what pictures I could use for this post until I ventured out Sparling, a route I rarely take now that one cannot cut through SJC to get to the shopping mall. I was happy to see piles of pipes that indicated that construction of the water main that will take water from the City's new well to the water treatment plant. You can see a directional boring machine in this picture.

 The contractor for the project is LGS Plumbing from Crown Point.

 There were machines in the field working.

 The one that was doing the most work was the one in the middle, which had a jackhammer and was breaking up the limestone bedrock that is close to the surface in this area. (It is why houses on Charles Street do not have basements.)

 Old Pump House #2 in Iroquois Park was recently demolished. The water main will come here and use the existing connection to get to the water treatment plant, show in the background.

 I will be visiting Sparling more often in the next few months to watch the progress.

The storage shed being constructed north of the tracks lacks doors and a floor. The existing building on the site can be seen on the right and it has six units compared to the eight in the new one.

Daylight savings time begins Sunday. Set clocks forward, which will give us more dark in the morning and more light in the evening.

The cold nights and the dustings of snow we are getting remind us that spring still has not sprung. However, I did see some crocuses a few days ago.