Murals, day six and meetings

I cannot think of any other topic that has been more fun to watch and write about than the mural project. Although it was scheduled to wrap up on the 6th, two of the artists were still working late on Monday. Emily Ding will eventually paint something on the door. What will it be? Why are the birds so menacing?

Ms Ding's contribution to the wall along the river was background. She did the water to the right of the fish.

 The other artist still at work is Chris Chanyang Shim. On Monday he was decorating the hanbok of the woman.

 His contribution to the wall is the sandhill crane.

 Jenna Morello signed the cone flowers, which indicates that it is finished.

 In addition to the dandelions mentioned in the previous post, she did the frog on the wall. The cattails and water to the left of the frog were done by Emily Ding.

 Cameron Moberg does not seem to have completed his "Rensselaer" sign on the newspaper building. His contributions to the wall were the fish and the butterfly.

The milkweed does not seem finished—we will see if Moberg works on it on Tuesday evening. (Have you seen his butterflies in Fowler?)

The City Council and Board of Public Works met on Monday. The BPW meeting was very short. It approved seeking design bids for a new lift station and the extension sewer lines to three unserved areas. It also approved hiring a crossing guard.

Most of the City Council meeting was a discussion of a citizen's concern about closing Van Rensselaer Street for the Little Cousin Jasper Festival. There are businesses along the street for whom weekends are their busiest days. Closing the street for the entire weekend substantially reduces the number of customers. The citizen suggested that the street be closed to everything but handicapped parking but city officials said there were legal and regulatory reasons that make that an unsatisfactory solution. Eventually a committee was appointed to take the issue under advisement for next year. The Council had approved the street closure for the Festival at its May 28th meeting.

The gas tracker for July will reflect a 5.5¢ increase per hundred cubic feet. The Council approved closing Van Rensselaer for OktoberFest on September 28 from 10:00 am until 11:30 pm. They did note that their action was following a long discussion about problems caused by closing the street.

A proposal to remove 18 more trees (3 in parks, 4 on City streets, and 11 in Weston Cemetery) was approved. The cost will be $14,800. The Council voted to allow the Mayor to sign the contract to purchase land south of the City for a possible new water well. There was a progress report on Well 6, which is being cleaned. It should be up and running again in a few weeks. Problems with this well motived the purchase of the land south of the City.

On Tuesday evening at 7:00 there will be a meeting of the Rensselaer Planning Commission to discuss rezoning some lots in the Madison subdivision to allow construction of multi-family units. It might be interesting.

Finally, I noticed that sidewalks were being installed at Autumn Trace. It is scheduled to open in a few weeks.