Odds and Ends, May 23, 2018

Construction of the IMPA solar farm on the north side or Rensselaer has been underway for a couple of weeks. I stopped by last Thursday to take some pictures and found that it was difficult to find a place from which to take a picture. The picture below was taken from the west side. The jackhammering that was going on could be heard in most of the City.

I had expected the rerouting of the County tile would be the first thing that the project would do, but I was wrong. The new tile has not yet been installed.

 I stopped by again on Tuesday and found that the entire field had short posts. The picture below is from the north entrance and on Thursday the only posts that had been visible had been in the distance.

 The local branch of PNC Bank closed last week and this week all the signage has been removed. There is a note on the door saying the office has moved to Merrillville.

 Fenwick Farms Brewery is adding an outdoor patio to their facility. The lot next to their buildings has been paved and a new door opens onto the space.

 I noticed that Sparling Avenue had been cut near Justin Hall at SJC. I had heard that SJC was abandoning its water system and would be getting water from the City. This is part of that switch, which is not yet completed.

The four lots between Fountain Stone and Royal Oak are now owned by Jasper County Senior Living LLC, the company that plans to build an assisted living facility on the site.

On Monday evening the Jasper County Plan Commission met for about two hours to discuss a revision to the planning code regarding setbacks for confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). There had been a workshop on the issue a week ago (it overlaped the City Council meeting so I did not attend) and two of the items that impressed at least some of the members of the Plan Commission were that if too many variances are being sought and granted, it may be that the unified development ordinance (UDO) is out of line and the Jasper County's buffer zones are greater than they need to be.

After some discussion by the members of the Commission, several members of the audience said that their discussion of some of the issues was beyond what they can regulate. The State of Indiana has assumed responsibility for regulating ground water and lagoons and the counties have no jurisdiction in these areas. Also, the meeting was advertised as addressing setbacks and therefore that is what they should be discussing, not other matters. Eventually a motion was made to change the setbacks of a CAFO to 100 feet from the perimeter, 200 feet from a road, and 1000 feet from the foundation of any primary structure on other property. The vote on that motion was six in favor and three against. The Commissioners will have final say, but it may not reach them for a while because the Plan Commission wants to present it as it will appear in the UDO.

There will be a special meeting of the Plan Commission on June 4 at 7:00 to discuss a rezone for a proposed pig farm. The matter could not be discussed at the Monday meeting because the newspaper did not publish the legal notice in time.

Finally, I noticed another mural near downtown. Do you know where this one is?