JECDO's first weekly roundtable meeting

On Friday morning Jasper County Economic Development Organization (JECDO) hosted a roundtable meeting on Zoom. First on the agenda was County Commissioner Kendall Culp. He said that the health department was short staffed because two of the nurses could not come to the office. He has weekly calls with the governor or the governor's staff. The last property-tax statements were mailed Saturday and property taxes are due May 11. The Courthouse is open afternoons on Thursday after the staff leaves so people can do the paperwork needed to transfer property.  He then switched to his role as a farmer to say that there is plenty of food but there are some spot shortages caused by changed buying patterns and disruptions in some processing plants. He said farmers are hurting because prices have tanked. At this point his audio broke up and I couldn't hear  the rest of what he said.

The next speaker was Mayor Wood. He said that only a couple people are working in City Hall offices. The city employees are keeping the utilities operating. The City is waiving penalties for late bills. There is a drop off box for payments in the foyer of City Hall. The Mayor did not have a video feed because the new pcs that the city bought do not have cameras or microphones.

Mayor Wood was followed by Heather Topaz from DeMotte. One thing that DeMotte is considering it is whether or not they will open their pool this summer. DeMotte has 3 miles of walking trails and lots of people are using them, trying to keep their social distances. It is not looking good for the Little League season this spring. However, building permits have picked up.

At this point the meeting switched to having the 38 participants give updates of what was happening with their organizations or businesses. Those who are part of the Appleseed education movement are continuing to try to bring early childhood education to Rensselaer. Someone I did not recognize said that there will be a complete change in how we do business after the shutdown is ended. A spokeswoman for First Trust Credit Union said that they are operating mostly through their drive-up window. They are looking for sponsorship opportunities to help the community.

A Hamstra Builders representative said that their people are busy with projects. He also said that some of the people are more efficient working from home than they are in the office. Brian Overstreet said there are still spots available in the community garden. The editor of the KV Valley post said that they and people at the Rensselaer Republican are in the office and answering the phone but their offices are not open to the public. Both newspapers are interested in good stories and if you have one, contact them.

The owner of Jasper Junction said that their employees have been furloughed but they would like to be back at work. He urged people to buy local and to buy used. Connie Neininger from White County, who is part of Hoosiers For Renewables, is working with JCEDO on a grant that is ag related. A spokeswoman for Caboose Lake Campground said that they are hosting essential workers but they are closed to others. The Rensselaer Central School Corporation superintendent said that there are busses at 9 business locations with wifi connections for students to use. Rose Acres is giving the schools 200 dozen eggs that will be distributed on Monday. They have sent iPads to nursing homes so residents can communicate with family. The schools 3-D printers are being used to print straps for face masks.

State representative Doug Gutwein mentioned that Melt Blown Filtration has purchased the Green Furniture Store property west of town and will make masks there. I checked the GIS site and saw that the purchase was done in December 2019. Sheriff Williamson reported that there has been a dramatic reduction in calls to his office. They are getting roughly 30 a day instead of the 50 to 80 a day. The population at the jail is down to 53 inmates. He said that there is work in progress to get a women's recovery house sponsored by Oxford House.

Kirby Risk is doing curbside pick ups. The Jasper County Art League has been meeting using Zoom. The Jasper County Library will probably start up first with just staff. It will then go to curbside service. The Jasper-Newton Foundation is dedicating $50,000 to help people affected by the shutdown. Self-employed people providing services especially need help. There will be another roundtable Zoom meeting next Friday morning. (Check JCEDO's Facebook page for info.)

(You can listen to the whole meeting here and see where I made mistakes in my account.)

In other news, the Indianapolis Colts will not be coming to Rensselaer this summer, one more cancelation. Stimulus checks are being received. I stopped by Dollar General this week to buy some garden seeds and asked if their business has slowed down. I was told that it picked up because the stimulus checks are going out.

Yesterday workers were installing the lights at the Blacker Fields. Early this morning they tested them. They work.

 The fields still need to have their topsoil replaced. Right now they are sand.

The work on the Cullen Street rail crossing had a directional driller on site yesterday. I think they had finished drilling when I stopped by. They installed the cables that will make the lights and crossing gates work. See below

 On Wednesday the City was ripping up the sidewalks at the intersection of the highways. I do not know why.

 Here we are in mid April and we are getting snow. The picture below is of Wednesday's snow, which melted quickly. It was replaced on Friday morning with snow that is not melting as quickly.

Update: They had not finished directional drilling on Thursday. On Friday they were drilling for a pipe that would reach from the controls at Cullen over to the Jefferson Street crossing. That means some kind of lights and perhaps even a crossing gate are planned for the Jefferson Street crossing.