End-of-the-year review 2019

Last year's end-of-the-year summary emphasized closings and to some extent that theme carried over into 2019. At the end of June Amtrak shut down its Hoosier State service that stopped in Rensselaer four times a week. Now only the Cardinal serves Rensselaer three times a week. Arby's in town shut down in late September. Late in the year Genova announced indefinite layoff; it is unclear if or when they will resume production. And it is likely that some of the approximately 20 businesses destroyed in the Town Mall fire will never reopen.

There was a rebirth of the bakery in June followed a few months later by its closure.

 There were also a number of openings. The biggest of them was the opening of Autumn Trace, the new independent living/assisted living apartments for seniors. It is a beautiful facility that fills a need for the community. The Fair Oaks hotel opened in January and a major new hotel opened in Remington at the end of September. Healthy Haven, which sells beverages, opened and had a ribbon cutting. In the summer a new Mexican restaurant opened in what had been Martin's. Ayda's and Unwind Massage both expanded. The old Horton building is being completely remodeled, and Shelter Insurance now occupies the back part of the building (moving just weeks before the Town Mall fire destroyed their former offices). A new employment agency seems to have opened just before the end of the year in the former Farm Credit office next to 5/3 Bank.

 Construction financed by the Parks for People Campaign is changing our parks. The site of the former Monnett School had soccer fields constructed that will be useable in 2020 as well as a walking trail with exercise equipment, a new shelter house, and two new basketball courts. A new dog park opened on Bunkum Road. Construction started on three new ballfields at Brookside Park. Park programming continued to expand. An example was the celebration of the 70th birthday of the LaRue Pool.

 Perhaps no story this year was more fun to cover than the painting of murals in downtown Rensselaer during July. Several top-notch muralists came to Rensselaer and created the Rensselaer Art Walk. Unfortunately, the Town Mall fire destroyed one of the major murals of the RENARTWLK.

Mural fever spread, and Remington also had a couple of significant murals added to its downtown.

 Many blog posts reported City and County meetings. In May the final draft of a wind ordinance was passed, ending months of contentious meetings. The ordinance prohibits wind farms in about 90% of the County. The County was more friendly to the possibility of solar power and the groundwork was set for a potentially large solar park in the northeast part of the County. Remodeling of the former PNC Bank building was mostly completed during the year and 2020 should see the prosecutor and probation offices settled in the building. A lot of planning for a jail energy project took place and in 2020 a small solar park should be added to the jail.

The State closed parts of SR 114 twice during the year, in the spring to replace a bridge near the Interstate and in the fall to resurface a bridge just east of Rensselaer.

Rensselaer had municipal elections in November and in January the City Council will have two new members.

 We had a very wet spring that delayed planting and probably reduced farm yields.

During County Fair week, a couple of pilots offered bi-pane rides and they were a special highlight for this blogger.

The Rensselaer Republican published its top ten stories of the year on Saturday but I cannot find it on the paper's website.