Heros honored

It was standing-room only as Monday's City Council meeting began. The crowd was there to watch the Mayor give citations to eleven people who helped save the life of a man who had a heart attack on July 5 at Smith's True Value Hardware north of town. The person closest to him when he collapsed was a City employee who had gone to a session offered by the City on CPR. He started CPR and was quickly joined by two other citizens. The ambulance crew arrived within minutes as did a police officer and four people from the fire department. A helicopter airlifted the man to a Chicago hospital where two surgeries were performed. A week later he regained consciousness and suffered no mental impairment. The Chicago doctors said that the quick response by bystanders and paramedics saved the man's life. For a more detailed account of this part of the meeting, see Wednesday's Rensselaer Republican or view the article on-line here.

Before that exciting and emotional part of the meeting, the Council approved a request by the SJC Alumni Association to serve beer at Brookside Park for its Homecoming and also approved the closure of a block of Susan Street for the Saint Augustine Fall Frolic on September 14. In addition, a new police officer was sworn in.

Almost all the audience left after the Mayor finished issuing the citations. The Council then had a public hearing for several additional appropriations at which no one spoke. It then passed the appropriations. A bit later it approved several transfers of funds.

The gas tracker for August will be a 13.25¢ decrease per hundred cubic feet.

The Council approved the resurfacing of "Mural Alley" between Front and Van Rensselaer as part of the road work for this year. Some road work has started but most of it will not begin until the end of the month.

The Police Department was granted permission to purchase two new squad cars. They will be 2019 models. One replaces a car removed from service and the other a car that was damaged in a crash. The Council also approved the request from the Cemetery Superintendent to trade in an old mower and purchase a new mower.

There was a discussion about replacing the City's three computer servers, which are 12, 8, and 5 years old. The proposal presented is to go to two servers plus storage and in the future replace each server every four years. Most of the discussion concerned whether to lease or purchase the servers, with the City's IT consultant leaning heavily toward the lease option. No action was taken at this meeting except the appointment of a committee to take the matter under advisement and report back at the next meeting.

As the meeting ended, there were several complaints about the railroad crossing at Cullen Street. Alas, this is something that the railroad handles and the City's attempts to get a response from the railroad often end in frustration.

Columns for the entry way to the Monnett/Stadddon Park are rising along College Avenue. The masonry work began on Tuesday and the picture shows the the work as of Tuesday evening.

 Another culvert in the dog park has a new coat of paint.

 The fields just north of Rensselaer that I thought were planted in very short corn are in fact sorghum, as the picture below shows. I do not know much about this grain, though I have seen fields of it in the past couple years on drives to and from Monticello. Here is a bit more about it.

Autumn Trace has tenants for about 60% of its rooms.