Mostly transportation

SR 114 has been closed this past week. On Friday the old bridge or culvert structure was still being removed. The machine on the east bank was jackhammering the large pieces of concrete that remained. The machine on the west bank was loading concrete into a dump truck.

 Volunteers for the Jasper County Historical Society have spent a couple Saturdays chinking the log cabin at the Fairgrounds. They have one more work day scheduled, this Saturday from 9:00 until 2:00.

 Their May meeting on the 21st will feature a presentation about the past and plans for the future of the Jasper County Airport.

The Jasper County Airport held its annual Career Day on Friday with over 1000 students from areas schools attending. The event had some scheduling problems because weather delayed some of the exhibitors. The Blackhawk helicopter came in a few minutes after a group from KV High School left after waiting at least 20 minutes for it.

 The weather was cool and windy and even the students who dressed appropriately were cold. The ones who were in shorts or in short-sleeved shirts were pretty miserable.

 This year there was again a display of drones by the Sheriff's Department and County Extension. The two groups use them for very different purposes. The Sheriff's Department has a drone with a heat-sensitive camera useful in finding people who are lost or who are trying to hide.

 I meant to post the picture below earlier this week. It shows the very large crowd that attended the Fish Fry at the Fire Station last Friday.

A North Newton student earned a perfect 1600 on his SAT test. I am impressed. I recall meeting only one person who had accomplished that. He had graduated from Princeton and was a math graduate student at the University of Wisconsin. After two years there he decided that he was not smart enough to make an impact in math so switched to something he considered easier, the Harvard Business School.

Fair Oaks Farms is offering free admission to residents of Jasper and Newton Counties on June 3 and June 13. You will need a valid ID showing residence.

Addendum: While talking to the drone operators, I wondered why the quadcopter design had not been invented many years ago. There were two reasons suggested. The first was that it needed the development of more efficient batteries. And the second was that there was some complicated electronics needed to get the four propellers operating together to make the device fly in every direction.