Odds and Ends, 4/19/2018

Work continues on the water main along Sparling. The south end of the main seems to be installed and on Thursday there was a small gap between the part that had been put in place by digging and the part put in place by directional boring. In the picture below you can see a gas main on the right of the picture and in the lower left, in the shadow, a water main that supplies customers.

 From what I could tell, the pipes still have not been installed at the north end of Sparling.

The fencing is up for what will become a solar park on the north side of Rensselaer. The workers still need to finish putting the barbed wire on the top of the fence.

 I found another flower of early spring, dandelions. They were along Vine Street.

Saint Joe's was in the news this week. They are planning what they are calling "The Purple Tie Dinner" on June 9 at the Farmhouse Restaurant. The featured speaker will be Mike Ditka. The proceeds from the dinner will be used to refurbish Schweiterman Hall; general admission is $175. You can read more at the SJC website.

There were a couple of meetings on Tuesday evening. At the Jasper County Historical Society meeting Stephanie Johnson reviewed the 400 or so letters that the late Ralph Fendig wrote home during World War II. He was stationed in Indiana, England, Belgium, and Germany while in the military and worked as a pharmacist well behind the front lines. Much of his life in the military was apparently quite boring (I suspect that that is the experience of many in the military). He took advantage of his free time to explore the countryside, visit old buildings, and attend as many movies and performances as he could.

 Fendig's drug store was located at the corner of Washington and Van Rensselaer. The building burned more than 20 years ago and the site is now a parking lot. The Fendig name lives on in two cultural organizations, the Fendig Summer Theater and the Fendig Gallery at the Carnegie Center.

The Jasper County Council met on Tuesday in an uneventful meeting. It heard a report from Honeywell about the proposed upgrades to cooling and heating in the Court House. The Council passed the financial management plan that Umbaugh had prepared. (The Commissioners had passed it at their April meeting.) Judge Bailey requested additional appropriations for an upcoming trial that will require interpreters. This trial may be the first of three similar trials. In a discussion of taxes, it was noted that because the assessed value of farmland is falling, the tax rate will be rising. Most Jasper County residents will see higher property taxes this year and next.