The last parade

On Thursday evening the high school had its homecoming parade. Since there will be no Christmas parade this year, this should be the last parade of the year. I wanted to take pictures while there was still daylight, so I visited the staging area before the parade began.

As is customary, each of the four classes entered a float. The junior class had an Alice-in-Wonderland theme with the slogan "Off with their heads."

The freshman float had a theme of knight soup on the menu.

 The seniors also had a culinary theme, "Roast the Knights," (though at first I thought the sign said "Roost the Knights".

 The sophomores wanted to rock the knights.

I am surprised that no one wanted to light up the knights.

What would a parade be without a fleet of loud fire trucks.

The parade had a good audience. The people in the parade kept littering the streets but fortunately little kids would run out and pick up the litter, keeping the streets clean.

The Bombers are playing Central Catholic tonight. We got about an inch and a half of rain with lightning during much of the afternoon, but as I write this it looks like the rain is past for today.

While taking pictures, I noticed that the basketball courts had been finished.

In somewhat important news, the Department of Transportation will be working on the SR 114 bridge over the Iroquois River east of town from September 30 until November 22 and as a result the highway will be closed. The announcement is here. It will be interesting to see how that will alter the route of the garbage trucks. Will they now come south on US 231?

Which reminds me, Clyde's restaurant in Francesville has closed. It was operated by the same people who used to operate the Doggers.

This weekend the SJC Alumni Association is holding its homecoming in Brookside Park and another alumni group is having a go-kart race at the fairgrounds. 

My asters are blooming

Monday's City Council meeting began with the adoption of the budget. You can find it here. It does not make much sense to me, but it may to you.

The budget adoption was followed by a number of items that took little time. There was a transfer of funds for the Park Department, and a second approval of the abandonment of an easement in Drexel Park, this one with the proper legal niceties. (See here.) The electric tracker for this quarter is a small increase. For the household using the average amount of electricity, it will cost an extra 74¢ a month. The Council approved combining two TIF districts into one, an action previously passed by the Redevelopment and Advisory Plan Commissions.

The Council approved an across-the-board salary increase for City employees of 3%. Insurance will only increase by 1% this year, much less than anticipated. The Council kept the City's contribution to employee's health savings accounts at $1500.

The Council approved three expenditures from the public relations fund. One was for the utility office to enter a scarecrow in the Park Department's Scarecrow Trail which will be in Milroy Park again this year. Another was a donation to the American Legion for their annual free Thanksgiving dinner.

At a previous meeting the Council had decided that the trick-or-treat day would be on Sunday, October 27. At Monday's meeting they established the hours from 5:00 to 8:00. Trunk or Treat at the Fairgrounds will be 5:00 to 7:00. Unless the Trunk-or-Treat event can get more help running the event, this may be its last year. In 2018 over 2000 kids came to the event. Anyone interested in helping or contributing candy can call Alice at the Extension office.

The City has been interested in purchasing the property at 817 West Clark, which is on a lot of .36 acres. The City has made an offer and the owner is willing to sell. The Council approved the purchase of the property, which will be added to Brookside Park.

 You can see the house in the picture below that shows continued work on preparing the ball fields.

The walking train behind the softball field is no longer open as dirt moving has reached the tennis courts.

Below is the view from the tennis courts.

The committee appointed to follow up on the Colonial Life presentation from the last meeting decided not pursue the offer and the Council agreed. The High School Homecoming parade will be Thursday evening at 7:00. The fire chief reported that the aerial truck continues to have problems and was granted permission to investigate purchasing options.

Paving has begun on some City streets. Below is a picture of new paving on East Maple Street.

 The footings for the basketball hoops at Monnett/Staddon were poured on Monday and the courts should soon be ready for basketball.

 Next to the basketball courts are benches and planters. Notice how green the soccer fields are. The grass is growing nicely.

Few if any flowers bloom later in the summer than asters and my blue asters are now blooming.

Enjoy the little that is left of summer.

Despite the rain

Saturday's Memories Alive Cemetery Walk had a short rain delay but otherwise went off as scheduled. There was no rain in the forecast I checked early on Saturday morning, so I was quite surprised when rain started early in the afternoon. I looked at the radar and saw a huge patch of green to our southwest. It never rained heavily, but there was light rain and sprinkles until well after 3:00, the start time of the cemetery tour. Despite the rain, the attendance was respectable, with 141 tickets turned in.

It has been the practice of the walking tour committee to not announce beforehand which people are being honored. I do not know if that is a good idea or not. (What do you think?) If you missed the event and would like to know who was portrayed by an actor, here is a summary, organized by year of birth.

 Dianah Evans Moore (1825-1904) was the daughter of Revolutionary War soldier John Evans (1761-1832) of South Carolina. Accounts of her life say that John Evans at one time owned a plantation with slaves, but lost them and moved West. She is the only Real Daughter of the Revolution (meaning that her father fought in the Revolution) buried in Weston Cemetery. She was portrayed by her great, great, great granddaughter.

Mary Ellen Travis Thompson (1830-1916) was married to Alfred Thompson (1829-1896), a prominent banker in early Rensselaer. After he retired from banking in 1881, he devoted himself to his agricultural holdings. Mary Ellen was the driving force behind the establishment of Milroy Park, Rensselaer's first park, and the commissioning of the Milroy statue. Her son, Delos Thompson (1864-1950), was an organizer and later president of the State Bank of Rensselaer.

Benjamin Harris (1838-1916) was a successful and prosperous farmer. He held at least one public office, that of County Surveyor for Newton County from 1876 to 1878. He left much of his wealth to endow the Harris Homes for Widows and Orphans, which continues in existence. His old home in Newton Township is now a drug rehabilitation facility.

Lura Irene Luce Halleck (1865-1941) was a music teacher before she married Abraham Halleck (1860-1944), a prominent businessman, lawyer, and politician. He constructed the first telephone lines in Jasper County, connecting DeMotte, Kniman, and Wheatfield. Lura read law in her husband's office and was admitted to the bar, practicing law with her husband. She had five children. Son Charles (1900-1986) served in Congress from 1935 until 1969, rising to the position of minority leader.

Howard "Lefty" Clark (1894-1979) followed his father into the newspaper business. He was a long-time reporter and editor of the Rensselaer Republican where he wrote a column called "The Gossiper." There is a bench dedicated to him in Hal Gray Park. His father Leslie Clark (1867-1952) was editor of the Rensselaer Journal, which merged with the Rensselaer Republican in 1908.

Leandus "Lonny" Davisson (1895-1918) died in France during WWI. He participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, but as most American soldiers who died in service during WWI, his death was from disease, not battle wounds. Originally buried in France, his body was returned to the United States in the 1920s.

Frederick Fendig (1911-2001) was the son of Benjamin Fendig (1868-1934) who owned a drug store in Rensselaer. He became a banker at Harris Trust in Chicago, but left that profession when he purchased the Circle Z Ranch, a guest ranch in southern Arizona that was used as the set of several movies and television shows. Frederick never married and left no offspring.

George Zorich (1916-1967) was a star college football player at Northwestern University who played briefly for the Chicago Bears. He married local girl Jacqueline Dean (1924-2015) and settled in Rensselaer. Active in the parks where he promoted and developed summer athletic programs, the Zorich Park Shelter is named in his honor. (George and Jacqueline had two sons who provided the Historical Society with much information about their father. One of them came from Iowa to attend the Cemetery Walk.)

Some pictures are here. Below is a map that shows where the graves are located.

I was skeptical of the need for eight six-passenger golf carts, but they were filled with people with limited mobility. They were the largest expense of the event but a generous grant from the Jasper-Newton Foundation covered that expense. The event also benefitted a great deal from several sponsors. You can see who they were here.

The early planning for this event is done by a committee of six people. Next year the Walk will probably be west of the Maxwell Ditch. The committee of six people who plan the event will begin with a list of potentially interesting people and stories and then select a tentative group of eight from the list. They will then go to the cemetery and see if the spacing between graves is sufficient—two presenters too close together interfere with each other. They will do additional research or find others to do additional research to see if the people that they think have interesting stories actually do. They then will recruit actors to portray the people they have selected and do the dozens of things that are necessary to make the event function smoothly.

I am amazed when I hear people question if there are enough interesting stories to keep this event going. Right now we have a list of enough potentially interesting people to keep the event going for eight to ten years with no repeats. Each year we find more people to add to the list. Eventually there will be repeats, but by the time that happens, few will remember the original presentations and there will be a different group of people on the committee.

Many of the people who enjoyed the walk completed a survey to give us feedback. My favorite responses were to the question, "When we do this event in the future, what should we change?" "Don't let it rain." and "Less precipitation."

Budgets

On Tuesday the Jasper County Council met to approve its annual budget. After reading the budget, which can be found here, the Council approved it.

It then reviewed budgets for the Rensselaer Central School Corporation, the Jasper County Airport, and the Northwest Solid Waste District. Thankfully no one read lists of numbers as the president of the Council had done for the County Budget. The RCSC expects a small drop in student population of ten to 15 students from last year. The high school has a very large freshman class, but there are grades that are fairly small. It has been a tough year for the school to hire personnel, whether they be teachers, bus drivers, or custodians. The labor market is very tight.

The airport is budgeting for starting a flight school. (Discussed here.) It is also thinking of capital improvements in the form of a new hangar to replace the 80-year-old structure that is next to the taxi-way.  It will probably be a no-frills structure because the people currently renting space in the old hangar are price conscious. It has been a great year for fuel sales, perhaps the best ever.

The Northwest Solid Waste District had a smaller budget because of combining two positions into one. A concern for them is the increasing costs of recycling electronics. There was one other non-binding review that the Council was supposed to make, for the Iroquois River Conservancy, but it was postponed until the 23rd at 6:00 pm.

The Council approved some additional appropriations and noted that the elevator for the former PNC building has been delivered. Installing it will take several days.

The Jasper County Historical Society also met on Tuesday evening. Its meeting can be viewed here. (You need to go to the 7:40 mark for the meeting to begin.)

The Walk with a Doc series continues on Mondays at noon at Brookside Park. Last Monday those attending heard about high blood pressure from Dr O'Malley. (who went to school in Poland.) After the short presentation, those attending walk the road through Weston Cemetery, which is about a mile.

Work has begun to install the basketball backboards in Staddon/Monnett Park. The concrete footings are scheduled to be poured on Monday.

 Mattheson was closed on Thursday. Although the whole street looks like it needs work, only a few especially bad parts are being redone.

 In the picture above, the field that is turning yellow is a field of soybeans.

Also along Mattheson are fields of sorghum that are maturing.

Meetings, etc.

On Monday evening both the Jasper County BZA and the Jasper County Planning Commission met. I was hoping that they would have another CAFO item and a rezone for the scrubbing station of the proposed methane pipeline on the agenda, but apparently the notices for those items were published too late to include in the agenda. There will probably be a special meeting on September 30 at 7:00 to consider those items.

However, there was one CAFO item on the agenda, something left over from last month's meeting. At that meeting it was observed that a couple of houses seemed to fall in the buffer zone, which is within 1320 feet of a foundation for a building on the CAFO. So the project's organizers were back seeking a variance for that regulation. One house owner had no problems with it, but a second, who were just within the buffer zone, being more than 1200 feet but less than 1320 feet from one of the foundations, objected, arguing that rebuilding the CAFO would seriously reduce the value of their property. They had purchased it after hogs had been removed from the site and had assumed that it would remain abandoned. Despite this objection, the BZA passed the variance.

The rest of their meeting and that of the Planning Commission were occupied with changes in policies and procedures. These will be presented in a clean form and voted on in a future meeting. Among the changes were a change in the normal meeting date to the third Monday of the month and a limitation on length of public comments. The argument here was that sometimes comments get disorderly or ramble, and the limit may help keep meetings orderly and that it can be waived whenever the Board or Commission (both meetings discussed policies and procedures) felt that public discussion and comments were helpful. There were several other changes that each of the meetings approved.

On Friday the Tourism Commission met. It received a report on the Touch of Dutch festival, which attracted an estimated 7000-8000 people. It ended up in the black and the proceeds will be used to fund other Chamber of Commerce events. One thing they found useful this year were two-way radios, which were loaned to them by another festival. The Touch-of-Dutch spokeswoman suggested that this might be something that Tourism Commission might purchase for use by County festivals.

The Commission also heard reports from the International Woman's Day event held in March and the JC Cruisers Car Show and Cruise. The Director of Tourism is planning a Jasper County bike ride for October 2020. The Remington Ride is no more and there seems to be considerable interest in this kind of event. It may have an agri-tourism focus.

The Memories Alive Weston Cemetery Walk had its dress rehearsal over the weekend. Some people think this is a event that is supposed to be scary or creepy. It is not. It tries to honor various people who have contributed to making the community, state, or nation a better place, or who have an interesting and informative story to tell. It takes the form of theater to make history entertaining.

If you know the Cemetery well, you might be able to figure out one of the persons honored from the picture below.

Saint Augustine's had its Fall Frolic on Saturday night. There where a lot of little kids there. They seemed to really enjoy trying to dunk people in the dunk tank.

The big earth moving machines are busy working on the new ball fields. John's Brothers is installing drainage tile and other equipment is smoothing the surface.

Moving dirt

Work has begun on the three proposed ball fields at Brookside Park. Step one is to remove the top layer of dirt. I guess this is to allow the fields to be smoothed.

 Below is the machine scraping the dirt. It takes it to a pile at the north end of the park.

 Also on Wednesday, Express Employment Services had its new sign installed and the old Shelter Insurance signs were removed from their former office space.

Chipping

The City Council meeting on Monday evening began with a public hearing on the budget. There were no public comments. The Council then moved to place the insurance proceeds from a wrecked police car in the police department account and approved a series of fund transfers. The transfers were to pay for the chipping of the brush pile, some chip and seal work, a new plow blade, and road salt.

The chipping of brush pile happened a few days ago. While I watched, the machine was chipping tree trunks.

The gas tracker for September will be a 4¢ decrease per hundred cubic feet.

The Council voted to vacate an easement in the Drexel Park area that seems to lie on the lots on which Autumn Trace built. The City had agreed to vacate this easement earlier but had neglected to formally do so. The Autumn Trace lenders wanted assurance that it had indeed been vacated. (I heard later that Autumn Trace has only ten vacant units left. It will not be long and the will have a waiting list. No Autumn Trace facility has filled as fast as their Rensselaer unit.)

The Council approved selling easements to two small parcels (40 square feet and 25 square feet) to the Indiana Department of Transportation. Next year INDOT will be resurfacing parts of US 231 and SR 114 and they will soon start constructing pedestrian ramps along those highways. The City will be paid $2000 for these easements at Angelica and McKinley and Front and Washington. (Maybe too many "ands"?)

The Utility Office was granted $500 from the public relations fund for their Customer Service Week. They will provide a lunch for the public on October 11 in the lobby of City Hall. (That week is also Public Power Week.)

The Council approved the low bid of $23,025 to seal coat City parking lots. Colonial Life  Insurance gave a presentation of what the company could offer and a Committee of Cover, Barton, and Bretzinger was appointed to consider their proposal.  One Councilman noted he had gotten questions of what the City was doing along Owen Street. The answer was that the area is being surveyed as a first step in putting in a sewer line. Fifteen people have applied for the opening in the Police Department. The Council approved waiving the building permit fees for a proposed shelter in the Staddon/Monnett park.

On Tuesday evening the Rensselaer Advisory Plan Commission met to consider merging the Drexel Park and Fairgrounds TIF districts. This recommendation had previously been passed by the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission.

The reason for combining them is that combined they would allow a larger bond issue. The Drexel Park TIF was established in 1993 and expanded in 2008 to reach the downtown. The Fairgrounds TIF was established in 2010 and now reaches from Rick's Pizza to the Interstate. The tax revenues from business improvements flow to the TIF district and can be used to fund utility and other improvements. Currently the Rensselaer TIF districts generate a bit over a million dollars a year but about half of that is used for bond payments for the new fire station and the Melville Street project. The Commission unanimously passed the merger, which now goes to the City Council.

Below are pictures of the new adult playground equipment along the walking paths in the Monnett/Staddon park. In the background of the first picture you can see that the two basketball courts have been lined.

 Notice how well the grass is growing on what will be soccer fields next year.

Pictures from Little Cousin Jasper

The Little Cousin Jasper Festival had beautiful weather on Saturday and then light rain on Sunday that caused most of the vendors to pack up early.

Sometimes the best pictures of the parade can be taken where the parade lines up. Below are the County Fair queen's court and the truck for the magician that performed several times during the festival.

 As the parade lined up, a crowd of people waited downtown.

 The Rensselaer High School band was the only band in the parade this year.

 Retired Iron had several tractors in the parade, but I especially liked the lawn tractors that were part of the contingent.

 A new attraction this year were these balls. People were zippered into them and they could then try to maneuver on the water. While I was there, the kids mostly fell down.

 This year there was again a car show and there were about 70 cars entered. I liked the color of these modified cars.

It seemed to be well attended. It was good to have some nice weather this year. Last year the remnants of Hurricane Gordon rained out most of last year's festival.

The Fall series of Walk with A Doc sponsored by Franciscan Health begins today (Sept 9). The event begins with a short presentation by a medical professional and then a mile-long walk through Weston Cemetery. It meets every Monday until October 21 at the Hall Shelter in Brookside Park at noon and lasts until 1:00. It is free and open to everyone.

August already gone

Shelter Insurance has moved to the back of the Horton building.

Over the weekend Express Employment Services moved into Shelter's old space in the Town Mall. Previously it had an interior space in the Mall.

It appears that new storage locker buildings are being built behind the current C&C Warehousing storage lockers on Melville.

On Tuesday the County Commissioners met. Perhaps the most interesting items was early on the agenda, in the buried cable permits. A company called AMP Americas wants to use County right-of-ways for a seven-mile long methane pipeline that would connect two dairies in Barkley Township with a natural gas pipeline. One of the dairies has a digester and the other will get one. The pipe will be plastic four to six inches in diameter. The gas will go through a scrubber to get it to the quality needed to insert it into the natural gas line. To build that scrubber building, the project will need to have some land rezoned, so the project may be on the County Plan Commission meeting agenda later this month.

The permit was approved with several stipulations. In the afternoon the company appeared before the Drainage Board to learn what it needed to do to get Drainage Board approval. The pipeline will cross seven regulated drains.

Four departments requested permission to fill vacancies. They included the Sheriff, the Prosecutor, Community Corrections, and the County Clerk.

The Sheriff reported that the jail has had fewer major incidents such as fights this year than it has in the past several years. He attributed the decline to more programming and activities for the prisoners. He also reported that a piece of the heating/cooling equipment had failed and was disappointed with the slow response that the Jail got from the Havel company. The Commissioners approved the two rezoning requests that had been recommended for approval by the County Plan Commission. The approved Animal Control's request to use $1000 from its donation fund to seal a storage building used for food storage; insects are a problem. There was a discussion of the multiple leaks that Animal Control has had with its water lines and the director will get quotes for replacing the current copper pipes.

Trane gave a brief update on the proposed energy savings program for the County Jail. The project is projected to cost a bit more than $2 million, with much of that for a small solar farm. Wells Fargo has offered interest rates slightly higher than 2% and would like a commitment. The Commissioners decided to go with a 15-year loan and made the motion needed for Trane to proceed with Wells Fargo.

The remainder of the meeting dealt with a number of items that are not of much public interest. One exception was the approval of a bid from Clark's of Remington to plant grass on the old Johnny Rusk site. The County will probably sell that lot in the future and wants it more presentable than it is currently.

In the evening the Rensselaer Park Board met. They approved construction of a shelter in the Monnett/Staddon park. It will cost about $18,000 and will be very similar to the shelter at Bicentennial Park south of Weston Cemetery. The Board also approved purchasing four scoreboards for the new ball fields and Roth Field. When the new ball fields are finished, the park leagues will move from Staddon and Columbia fields to the new fields. Columbia and Staddon will then be available for the travel leagues that currently do not play home games because they lack a decent field.

The Board decided to not charge the fees for the dog park that had been slated to start next year. They will accept any donations that people might make to help defray the costs of running the dog park. There was a long discussion about possible buildings that ended inconclusively. The Parks have a url <rensselaerparks.com> that currently takes one to their Facebook page but which soon may have its own content.

Dirt will start moving for the ball fields next week. The basketball courts at Staddon/Monnett have been painted and exercise equipment is being installed along the walking trail.

Apple Adventures

For the Labor Day weekend Fair Oaks Farms had a special promotion for their new apple orchard: free apples. I am not sure what kind of response Fair Oaks expected, but I suspect that the turnout was much larger than they anticipated.

The first stop on the way to the orchard was the orchard tent which was next to the Cowfé. In it people signed their name and got a bag for the apples. As you can see in the picture below, there was a line even for getting the bags.

 People could then walk to the orchard, which is west of Pork Adventure building, or wait for a wagon ride. Because a lot of people were unsure of where the orchard was, they waited. Some of the people in the line had come from some distance. A family ahead of us in line was from Chicago.

 The tractor and wagon stopped first at the corn maze. It was not free but cost $5. More than half of the people on our wagon got off for the maze. The tractor then backtracked to the orchard. We got off and watched a line of people who had finished picking get back on the wagon.

 The orchard covers 40 acres and has eight different varieties of apples that mature from mid August to mid October. The Gala apples were at the end of their season and people could pick that variety but the Honeycrisp variety was the advertised variety for the day. You can learn about the varieties and their seasons on the Fair Oaks Orchard webpage.

The trees are all dwarf trees and some near the edge had been heavily picked. We were told to wash our hands before picking (I am not sure why) and to avoid picking apples off the ground. There were a lot of apples on the ground.

 The trees were small but seem to have borne a large crop this year.

 Filling the bag did not take long. The orchard sells by the bag and I never did find out what the normal cost of the bag was.

Enjoy what is left of the Labor Day weekend.