Speaking of SJC, the acting head of the College gave an interview on the local radio station that you can hear here. I hope they are able to find other colleges that are willing to offer classes on the campus, but I do not see why those other colleges would be interested in helping SJC regain accreditation.
Demolition of the Town Mall site is finished and now dump trucks are bringing in dirt to level the site.
A couple businesses dislocated by the Town Mall fire seem to have relocated to the small office building behind Ayda's. Nail Bumpers and the Sune Salon are both there and I believe they both were in the Town Mall. Also there is Wilson Events by Design, which rents for weddings and parties, and The Hair Station, which I think has been there for some time. The Marion Township Trustee used to have his office in this building but is now at the Fire Station.
The HoneyComb Salon, another business that was burned out, has moved to the back of the building by the bowstring arch bridge. Also at the back of this building is a new business, Trammel Mental Health, LLC. It offers individual, couple & family therapy. Serenity Health and Wellness was scheduled to have a ribbon cutting on a space across from the Marathon gas station by the railroad tracks but it was postponed and I have not seen a reschedule.
On Tuesday evening the Jasper County Soil & Water Conservation District held its 74th annual meeting at eMbers venue. The featured speaker was Scott Pelath, executive director of the Kankakee River Basin Commission. The Commission was established a year or two or three ago by the State Legislature and replaced another group that dealt with the Kankakee. Pelath is from LaPorte and served 20 years in the State Legislature. His topic was "The Future of the Kankakee River." Kankakee River floods, such as that of 2018, cause serious damage. When the pioneers arrived in this area, the River was a meandering stream with a huge wetland area associated with it. In the early 20th Century it was dredged and straightened. This created thousands of acres of fertile farm land, but it left a river that flows much faster and that keeps eroding its banks. The goal of the Commission seems to be to alleviate the harm caused by the decisions of a century ago without abandoning the benefits. One thing they want to do is find places to store water during floods. The water must go somewhere, and if it goes to land designed to be flooded, it will not be as deep in farm fields. The Commission has purchased some land along the River in Newton County for that purpose and I expect they will be purchasing more.
On Thursday evening there was a meeting of the Jasper County Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area. It is a group that is trying to get organized. As the name suggests, its goal is to control invasive plants such as honeysuckle and garlic mustard. One announcement at the meeting was that the Jasper County Soil and Water Conservation District is having a native plant sale this spring. Details and an order form are here.
I learned at the meeting that the Nature Conservancy has a number of land holdings in northeastern Jasper County. Most are adjacent to the Jasper-Pulaski Fish & Wildlife Area, but several are north of the NIPSCO Shahfer power plant. One of them, the Prairie Border Nature Preserve near Jasper Pulaski, has a walking trail open to the public.
Less than a month to the equinox. Days are lengthening by more than two minutes each day.
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