April flowers? No. Snow showers.

Rensselaer woke up to a beautiful, wintery scene Monday morning. By noon most of the snow was gone. The forecast is for much warmer temperatures this week.

 The second annual Family Fun Fair was held on Saturday morning. (Last year it was called Family Resource Day.) The attendance was considerably improved from last year. The kids seemed to have a really good time, as did many of the adults.

 I did not get to see the kids interacting with the vehicles that were part of the Touch-A-Truck feature of the event. It included tractors, a school bus, an ambulance, a firetruck  and a dump truck.

 Franciscan Health was there so I asked the local administrator about a legal notice that had appeared in the Rensselaer Republican on March 21: " Notice of Closure Franciscan Home Care Services Inc....Public notice is hereby given that Franciscan Home Care Services will close the Rensselaer locations effective April 6, 2018. Service to patients will continue in Rensselaer through Franciscan Home Care, Lafayette." He assured me that there will be no changes in services or staff. Jasper County Home Health Care had needed a license to operate, but with the merger of Jasper County Hospital into the Franciscan Alliance, those services can be provided using the Lafayette license. It costs money to keep the license and since there is no benefit for paying that money, the license is not being renewed. However, the decision to not renew the license legally required the notice in the newspaper. So if you saw the notice and were worried about what it meant, relax. The local administrator also told me that Franciscan was trying to recruit doctors for Rensselaer and that one is scheduled to start in late summer.

This week street work has begun. This machine was busy digging out ends of sidewalks.

 Below is an example from Jefferson and Vine.

 Grace Street is closed.

 The milling machine is taking about four inches off the road.

 It moves fast and quickly fills the trucks.

 Also along Grace Street storm sewers are being replaced.

Different crews are busy along Sparling. One group is near the Banet Substation and is excavating a trench for the water main. Another crew is manning the directional drilling machine and boring further to the north.

 I saw on Facebook that there is a new business in what was the Pub. A few days ago the windows were covered and now they are cleared. Apparently the new business is called Moonshiners Bar and Grill. I guess I need to pay more attention to the agenda of the Alcohol Review Board.

Ready to open is a small gift/craft store across from R&M.

I found this on the Pulaski County Government Facebook page: "The PC had initially planned to conduct a specially called public hearing in late April. However, because we have heard from RES that, based on their timeline, they do not expect to apply for permits until early 2019, staff have decided, after conferring with elected officials, not to incur the additional costs associated with a special meeting; instead, the PC will consider proposed amendments to the UDO pertaining to wind turbines (and signage) at its next regularly scheduled meeting, on Tuesday, 29 May, at 7:00p.m."

A year ago the Columbian Players of Saint Joseph College put on its final play, Guys and Dolls.