It seems that the Rensselaer Care Center has no drainage for its parking lot and as a result, it often floods with heavy rain. The Center is planning to redo the parking lot and is adding some drainage. The City of Rensselaer suggested that they review their plans with the County Drainage Board. The plan includes a detention pond and an outlet to the river that will cross the property of CenturyLink. The one suggested from the surveyor's office was that they put a flap on the outlet to the river to prevent back flow. The plan was approved.
I left the meeting during a long discussion of the Kankakee River maintenance assessment. The state or federal government has made a large grant to reduce flooding of the Kankakee and the various counties affected will need to provide a 20% match to the funds. There will be public hearing held in the northern part of the County in the future. Since Rensselaer is not in the watershed and will not be affected, I left before the discussion finished.
In the evening the Rensselaer Park Board met and there was much discussion about park improvements, both completed and upcoming. The grand opening of the dog park had occurred earlier in the day and it was discussed. To use the park, a person must register a dog and the form for that can be found here.
The Parks for People committee was scheduled to meet on Tuesday and discuss plans for the ball fields in Brookside Park. The work will be bid out to a variety of contractors.
The Monnett soccer fields did not get seeded this spring because of weather–the same weather problems that delayed planting by farmers also delayed work on the soccer fields. Weeds have grown up and they will be treated with herbicide. The fields will be seeded in August. The walking trails at Monnett will be paved when Town and Country Paving is able to fit the project into their schedule. After that there are a number of other improvements that will be able to move forward.
The 70th anniversary bash at the pool was a success. An anonymous donor would like to have a plaque for Jimmy McFall installed at the pool. (It was his drowning death in 1946 that motivated the community to build the swimming pool in Brookside Park.) The Board approved the idea. There will be theme days at the pool in July. Sometime during the month there will be a swim with a movie night. Next week there will be a camp out in the park for families with kids.
Sometime this summer the Parks should get its own web page. Until then, you can find information about park programs on the Park's Facebook page here.
The next Park Board meeting will be on August 5 at 6:00.
A new exhibit opened at the Carnegie Center on Tuesday featuring the Carnegie Quilters who have been meeting for 25 years. Below are pictures of a few of the quilts on display.
The Rensselaer Summer Swim Team finished its season on Saturday with a win at the conference finals.
I noticed that despite our very frequent rain and storms, the water east of Weston Cemetery has finally dried up. Taking a look at the mud, it contained a sizable population of small fish, which means that fish from the river were able to get in and lay eggs. I did not see tadpole corpses. Perhaps they had enough time to develop into frogs, toads, and salamanders.
Despite the very wet spring, mosquitos have not yet been a serious problem this year. However, in the past week the Japanese beetles have emerged and are busy destroying leaves of fruit trees.
On Wednesday work began on murals downtown. We should end up with a beautiful alley.
On Wednesday work began on murals downtown. We should end up with a beautiful alley.
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