Final October meetings 2018

On the way to Monday's City Council meeting, I saw the nearly full moon rising next to the Court House. I stopped and took a picture.

The meeting was largely uneventful. It began with a discussion of an amendment to the salary ordinance that involved payment for off-system work. The issue came up because three City linemen went to Tallahassee, Florida to help restore power. They will be paid by the City of Tallahassee and then the City of Tallahassee will be reimbursed by FEMA. The City Clerk-Treasurer said that the auditors noted that any payment needs to be in the salary ordinance. There was a discussion of technical details that was over my head but the City Attorney said that he did not think the ordinance was needed. Eventually Scott Barton moved to accept the ordinance but no one seconded, so the item died.

Next some routine items were handled. There was a transfer of funds to pay for a new heating/AC unit for the mayor's office. The Council approved some special program available to municipalities to purchase natural gas. It should give the City lower gas prices. The Council passed a permission to bid 2019 supplies, something that is done every year. It approved funds to update the electronics on the City-owned Ditch Witch directional drilling machine.

The next Council meeting will be held on November 13, not November 12. Sunday is Veteran's Day and City workers have the Monday (the 12th) off. By the way, this is a special Veteran's Day. It marks the centenary of the end of WWI. The armistice took effect on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.

There were two 20-year service awards, which is a clock. They went to Police Chief Matt Anderson and Utility Office manager Heather Smart. Pictures are in the Rensselaer Republican.

Trick or Treat hours are 5:00 pm until 8:00 pm on Sunday, the 28th. The Trunk or Treat hours at the Fairgrounds will be 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm. There was a quick report on Public Power Week, which went well and a report on the City's aid to Tallahassee. Pretty much all of Tallahassee lost power. Utilities from 16 states responded. The Fire Department has had a busy couple of weeks. The Sparling Avenue water well may be finished and ready for testing by the end of the week.

Also on Monday evening the Jasper County BZA met. Von Excavating had a request for a use variance that has been on the agenda at past meetings and when no one from Von Excavating showed, the BZA dismissed the case.

The next item was a request for a renewal for the special exception given a meteorological tower. These towers measure wind speed and are the first step in planning for a wind farm. The exception was given in August, 2016. It was quickly pointed out the the current exception expired in February and that the County had notified the company (RES) that it had expired. After some discussion and comments from the audience, the Board denied the request for a renewal. They then discussed what a reasonable time for removal would be and decided that it should be removed before Jan 1, 2019. They then discussed how that could be enforced and the answer is that it requires the County to go to court, which is expensive.

Have you noticed that RES is no longer placing ads in the Rensselaer Republican? I suspect that they have realized that it will not be possible at this time to build a wind farm in Jasper County.

The Plan Commission met next. The first item on their agenda was approval of a two lot subdivision, which is the legal way that the County is handling a case in which a person who owns a small amount of agricultural land will be able to sell the house on the land to the people currently renting it. The owner was not in the audience, so the matter was delayed. He eventually showed as the meeting drew to a close. He had come late and been locked out of the Court House. Apparently when the security officer leaves, she locks the door. The Commission approved the request.

There were two items on the agenda that could not be addressed because the public notice had not appeared in the paper in time. (Notice must be ten days before the meeting.) They were both amendments to the UDO. One was a flood plain ordinance that comes from the DNR and FEMA. The County needs the language in its UDO to meet state and federal requirements.

A special technical committee that has met to review the wind farm ordinance reported that they had made good progress but needed to meet again. The item may be on the agenda of the November 26 meeting. They decided that the December meeting would be the third Monday, Dec 17, and thought that next year they would move the meetings to the third Monday rather than keep it on the fourth Monday.

The November meeting may also have a proposed solar farm ordinance on the agenda. It comes from the planning and development office and is based on what other counties have done. There is interest in placing solar farms near the NIPSCO plant.

For those who did not recognize the historic building in the last post, a building that everyone is supposed to remember, here is a picture of the front of the building. The pictures in the last post showed the back of the building.

Last Thursday the Parks hosted a Fall Fest. It included a Riley Read.

There were lots of pumpkins at the Fall Fest. I did not stay long enough to see how the turnout was. I decided to go to the Thirsty Thursday event that the Jasper/Newton Foundation was hosting at Fenwicks. The topic was health care.

 The leaves are finally displaying fall colors.

I think the Autumn Trace apartments will have a slab floor. The workers are now putting in all the pipes that will be under the floor. They still have a ways to go before walls start going up.

It is hard to get an exciting picture of the moving of dirt that is going at the old Monnett School site. The piles have been leveled. Eventually it should all be smooth.

The Horton Building was sold earlier this month and work is being done on its exterior.

When I was out of town over the weekend, I had my first Uber ride. I have been told that there is an Uber driver in Rensselaer and that he is fairly busy.