The theme for Little Cousin Jasper this year is "Believe in Magic." The main entertainment will be a magician who will put on his magic show several times. The Board told the festival representatives that the Board wants to cut back on funding festivals and events because that funding has not had the impact that was anticipated. Instead the Board would like to increase funding of capital improvements. The Board approved a grant that was 75% of the requested amount and warned that next year the grant would probably be less. They also suggested that the Festival work harder to getting sponsorships. The Tourism Board itself would like to move from grants to sponsorships.
The Taste of Jasper County event is planned for June 8 and is intended in part to raise funds for the Safe Halloween event at the Fairgrounds this Fall. The idea behind the event is that people do not know about food options in other parts of the County—Rensselaer residents do not know the restaurants in the Demotte area and DeMotte area residents do not know the food options to their south. The goal is to have ten restaurants set up in the City Parking lot at Front and Washington and showcase what they can do. They will be encouraged to offer some $1.00 sample bites in addition to regular menu items, though their menu will be highly restricted because of space. There will be musical entertainment for the later afternoon and evening, and after the event Embers will have a band. June 8 was selected because it was the date that Remington's Water Tower Days would have occurred if it had not been canceled for this year. (They had too many problems getting volunteers to help.) The Board agreed to sponsor at a slightly less amount than was requested.
Listening to comments before and after the meeting, I learned that the new motel at the Remington exit (I-65/US24) is scheduled to open in September, though if weather cooperates it might be open in August. There are outside companies exploring this intersection as a place to locate because it has a better utility infrastructure than the other I-65 interchanges in the County. It has full water and sewage, NIPSCO has a large gas pipeline in the area, and there are three electric utilities close by. We will see if any of the interest results in announcements in 2019.
The Jasper County Historical Society sent out its April newsletter and it had a couple of fascinating pieces about the orphanage that was located on land that later became Saint Joseph's College. The Chronology of Fr Robbins said that the the Diocese of Fort Wayne purchased the 933 acre George Spitler farm in 1867 for the orphanage and that the first orphans arrived in 1868. The boy orphans were moved in 1876 to a new orphanage in Lafayette and the girl orphans were moved in 1887 to a orphanage in Fort Wayne. The Indian School opened in 1888.
The Historical Society received papers from Saint Joseph's College that adds some detail. The Historical Society has an index of 145 names associated with the orphanage. They were obtained from the papers that they received and also from the 1870 and 1880 Censuses.
The orphans were mainly children of immigrants residing in Fort Wayne. Of the 53 boys at the orphanage when the Lafayette home opened, 35 were Irish and 8 German. 32 were half orphan with still one parent alive. The George Spitler home, which had housed the first orphans, burned in 1888. The orphanage was staffed by the Sisters of Mercy. Several of them had served as nurses in the Civil War. In 1886 one of the Sisters began to visit Welbern Wartena before he was hung for murder. Her visits convinced him to be baptized before his execution.
If you would like more information, contact JCHSmuseum at gmail.com.
On Friday I received a revised copy of proposed wind ordinance that the Jasper County Plan Commission will consider on April 15. There are a couple small changes and one huge change. The small changes increase setbacks to non-participating land owners and roads. The huge change moves the line that separates the part of the County in which wind turbines are allowed from the part where they are not allowed. That line is currently Division Road. The new line is twelve miles south, at CR 1200S. That means that Carpenter Township and some of Jordan Township are the only parts of the County in which commercial wind turbines will be allowed. In 88% of the County they are banned. The justification for the extension of the no-turbine area seems to be the MOA (Military Operations Area). There is strong opposition to wind turbines in Barkley and Milroy Townships and that opposition probably made any wind farms there impossible. Hence banning them there will make the citizens happy and will have no effect on what gets built. In contrast, there is considerable support for turbines in the southwest part of the County and that seems to be the only area in which there is enough support to allow them to be built. It will be interesting to see if the wind turbine opponents celebrate this as a victory (which for them it is) or if they will be bitter and angry that there is not a complete ban.
(I have noticed that I have a tendency to put the most interesting things in a post at the end. I do not understand why I do this, but you should be aware of this tendency of mine.)
Autumn Trace has put more pictures on Facebook.
On Saturday morning the Family Fun Fair was held at the Fire Station. A helicopter was one of the attractions.
It is kind of funny that as I read this I hear what sounds like cannons going off. I would much rather be bothered by the windmills which are desperately needed if our grandkids are to have any future at all. A couple of neighbors in the Queen City area of Milroy township think it is perfectly fine to disturb the peace, no matter the time of the day or night. This is so very inconsiderate of them and I really feel for those neighbors that live farther to the north and close to their line of fire. So where should they be allowed to target practice? I don't have an answer, but surely not on a five acre tract with neighbors in 3 directions.
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