Comings and goings

On Tuesday a new trailhead marker was being constructed along the College Avenue side of the Monnett/Staddon Park area.

 Below is the finished result. There are holes for the foundations of three entry ways to the park and as of Thursday they had rebar in them. They may be filled with concrete by the time you read this.

 As things were going up at the parks, a house on Jackson Street was being torn down. Going,

 going,

almost gone

 and gone. You can see a doorway at the back of the basement (middle left in the picture) that was the entry to what seems to have been a bomb shelter. The excavator was on top of it as it knocked down the house and did not damage it. It had, according to the person who purchased the property to demolish the house, 18 inch concrete walls.

 With the structure down and the debris trucked away, the hole was filled.

 After this is smoothed and grass is planted, there will be no evidence that there was once a house here.

I think most of the neighbors are happy that the house is gone.

The Tourism Board met on Friday morning. They heard a proposal from the SJC alumni group asking for assistance with the September golf outing and homecoming event. It is scheduled for September 27-28. The Board cut their request in half and approved it. The Board also agreed to be a sponsor of this year's Memories Alive Weston Cemetery Tour on September 21. (Other sponsors include Beaver and Beaver Attorneys at Law, eMbers Venue and Station, Steinke Funeral Home, Rensselaer Monument, Inc., and also Jackson's Funeral Chapel, The Law Office of Clifford M Robinson, and Brown's Garden and Floral Shoppe. In addition, the Jasper-Newton Foundation has given funds to support golf carts at this year's event for people who feel they cannot walk the route. By the way, tickets are now available at Willow Switch, Jordan's Floral, and Brown's Garden and Floral Shoppe.) (I am one of the people who are planning this year's walk.)

Other items: DeMotte will host a softball tournament next year that will bring in a dozen teams for a weekend. The tourism director is exploring the possibility of a Jasper County bicycle ride for next fall. There was a discussion of establishing a committee to explore agri-tourism possibilities. Because of Fair Oaks Farms, we already have a lot of agri-tourism but is there more that Jasper County and its neighbors could do? A candidate was suggested for a vacancy on the Board and the September Commissioner's meeting may have that on its agenda.

The RENARTWLK mural project is finished for this year, but I noticed a number of small additions have been added in the past week or two. I hope that the people who have added them have had permission from building owners. I am not sure I like them. A few of these small, amateurish paintings are OK but too many will detract from the overall project.

 This looks like it was done with a stencil but I do not know what it is supposed to be.

 The purple face is the best of these small additions.

 At least it is colorful.