A ribbon cutting and a lot more

On Monday the Jasper County Airport had a ribbon cutting to celebrate the purchase of an airplane that will be available for rental and that will be used to start a local flight school.

The plane is a 1975 Cessna. The model is popular for flight training.

It even has a name, though who gave the plane its name and why are lost in history.

The plane will initially rent to pilots for $115 an hour, which is considered cheap for plane rental. Currently those who want to rent a plane must go to Valpo or Lafayette.

Before the ribbon was cut, airport manager Ray Seif gave those attending a rundown of what is happening at the airport. The new fuel tanks allow the airport to purchase complete truckloads of fuel, reducing its cost. The airport has the lowest general aviation fuel prices in the area and it frequently has planes arriving to take advantage of the low price.

Plans for the near future include building another hangar and removing the 80-year old hangars that are next to the taxiway. Their location no longer meets FAA specifications but they are grandfathered in. Longer term the airport would like to add a longer runway, one running east to west, so it could handle bigger planes.

Did you know that there are two businesses that operate from the airport, Excel-Air Services and Von's Aircraft Service?

Demolition of the buildings destroyed by the big fire began Monday morning. First order of business seemed to be separating out the metal.

As I was trying to find vantage points for interesting pictures of the demolition, I noticed the sign below in the window of R&M.

The Rensselaer Park Board met on Monday evening in a lightly attended meeting. The members discussed the possibility of raising fees for ball teams for 2021 but will not make any decisions until the fall. They also discussed possibilities for staffing the concession stand for the new ball fields, which also does not have to be finalized until the 2021 season. Work continues on the various Parks for People projects. A tournament has been scheduled for the new ballfields for the third weekend in July and there was concern if the facility would be ready by then.

The new ball fields have the fences 200 feet from home plate and that is enough for softball and 12 & under baseball. Larger fields would have meant cutting into the existing tennis courts.

The Upper Elementary Art Show is now installed in the Fendig Gallery. It is another short show, running only until Feb 16. The Gallery is open T-Th 12-4.

One class got to use glitter in their pictures.

Work continues with the restoring of the windows.

Plans for RENARTWLK 2 will be discussed at a meeting on Feb 13 at Embers from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. If you are interested in being part of phase 2 or just interested in what is being planned, attend the meeting. It is open to the public.

Last week trees were being cut down in Milroy Park.

The house that was demolished to enlarge Brookside Park was once a one-room school house. There are still some of them in existence in sparsely populated areas. Here is video about a couple. (One of the kids in the video is related to me.) There is activity in the old bowling alley. I have heard from usually reliable sources about what is being planned but do not know if I should share that yet. What have you heard?

We had a couple beautiful days in which people were out and about in short sleeves. Now we will get some more winter.