City council 12/10/2018 and more trees

Rensselaer City Council met Monday evening. It approved a gas tracker that was a fraction of a cent increase per hundred cubic feet, transferred some funds, and approved the supply bids from Ceres Solutions for fuel and Wonderland Tire for tires.

There are a couple of unnamed companies that would like to attach lines to the City's utility poles. Steve Miller, Electric Manager of Operations and Engineering, presented a proposed pole attachment agreement that the City would use for these companies and for companies now using City poles when their current agreements come up for renewal. The contract that he presented incorporated items that other cities have in their pole attachment contracts. The Council approved the contract and authorized the Mayor to sign it.

Kevin Cochran, Weston Cemetery Superintendent, asked for approval to remodel the cemetery building. The remodeling would move the office from the back of the building to the front. His request was approved. Mr Haun said he was working on an ordinance to change pay for firemen. Currently they are working with a 2007 pay ordinance that gives them $7.50 per run they attend. He wanted it raised to $10.00. The Council approved the change but the ordinance needs a few technical details worked out before it can be presented to the Council.

The Mayor announced that he had heard from U.S. Department of Agriculture that Rensselaer would receive a grant of $1,749,000 and a loan for about $3,400,000 at 2.375% interest to replace the lift station next to Weston Cemetery and extend sewer lines to 3 unserved areas. This is part of a long term sewage control plan that the City must undertake. More details about this part of the plan and the grant are here. The grant proposal was discussed in a Council meeting in July.

In short notes, IDOT has not responded to the City Attorney's letter regarding the abandoned substation on Maple Street. The new well on Sparling is not in operation, nor is the Rensselaer 2 Solar Farm, though the latter was supposed to be commissioned on Tuesday. There was a question about the power outage/brownout late Sunday evening. The problem was not with the City but with the supplier, which is NIPSCO. The supply was reduced to one phase (and I do not really know what that means). The power was back to normal when the City switched the whole city to the Banet substation from the Eger substation. The power problems also affected some REMC users.

Below are a few more trees from the Christmas Tree Walk in Potawatomie Park.

More animals have been added to the Animal Shelter tree.

The Library also has decorated trees on display. These three are from the Jasper/Newton Foundation, Tops, and CDC Resources. People can vote for their favorite tree by making a donation to the Food Pantry.

Other trees in the Library are from Bethany Church, 4-H, First Presbyterian Church, and Tri Kappa.

The Library also has Christmas displays in its entryway. One section is of Santa figures given to the Library from the John and Sharon Schulenberg estate and the other is of nutcrackers from the collection of a young girl

The water level in the river has been dropping as the ice along the bank and on some trees shows.

Finally, this week there has been construction activity at the Autumn Trace site. On Monday concrete trucks were delivering more concrete and on Tuesday there was digging going on. I keep waiting for walls to go up.

Wednesday update: There were three more power interruptions today, though only one at my house. The problem is with NIPSCO. Also, the new solar park is now on-line and producing electricity.