Minor flooding

The heavy rains late last week sent the Iroquois River over the flood level as measured at Laird's Landing. The River crested at about 12.5 feet with flood stage at 12 feet. A couple roads in Weston Cemetery were closed.

The water covered the bridge that separates two parts of the Cemetery.

 The mural on the retaining wall got its feet wet. The sandhill crane looked like it was swimming with a reflection.

Below is the graph of the River level as measured by the gauging station. There were higher river levels in previous years; no daily records were set.

The Rensselaer City Council met on Monday with two new members. Russ Overton and Noelle Weishaar replaced  Scott Barton and Rick Odle.

The meeting began with the swearing in of a new police officer, Justin Wilson. The Council elected George Cover as president of the Council, which means that he presides over meetings in the absence of the mayor. It then approved the establishment of a Fire Billing Service Fund. The Fire Department will begin using a billing service to bill insurance companies for whatever can be collected and the fund will be placed in this account. The gas tracker for January will be a 5.25¢ increase per hundred cubic feet.

Next Jeff Phillips, who now works for the Foundation for Fair Contracting, (I think their web page is here) gave the Council members a handout that outlined what the organization does. He would like the Council to adopt an ordinance that would set some criteria for contractors bidding on City projects in excess of $150,000. The ordinance would give grounds for rejecting a low bid if the contractor seems to be one that performs substandard work. No action was taken at this meeting and the matter will be on the agenda of the January 27 meeting.

Police Chief Anderson was scheduled to talk about a software upgrade, but the County, which is taking the lead in this matter, still has steps to take. The software the department is currently using will no longer be maintained by the vendor so a change must be made. The County should be making a decision in late February or early March.

The Mayor appointed a committee (Overton and Watson) to review cemetery pricing. Prices were last adjusted in 2007.

The Mayor and the Council appointed people to a lot of commissions and boards. Many were re-appointments. The Mayor announced that a utility-pole contract is being prepared with NITCO and CenturyLink and will be presented at the next meeting. In other announcements, the Police Chief said that a newly hired officer is beginning his 16-week training at the police academy. Mr Haun said that the aerial truck remains out of service and may be fixed in February. Mr Lockridge said that design of the sewer project continues. Construction may begin by the end of the year. The meeting adjourned at 6:40.

I noticed that Fair Oaks Farms is getting ready to open its next attraction, a robotic dairy. The dairy is in operation now and tours will begin in a few months. There was an announcement of their plans in several ag publications in November and the first announcements of plans was in late 2017. Search the Internet for "fair oaks farms robotic dairy" for more information.