Mostly pictures

On Sunday I took advantage of the nice weather to take a bike ride. As I was almost done, I heard sirens and saw some smoke to the east. I went looking to find the smoke and found it north of the VanRensselaer school. A garage had caught on fire and spread to the house. The Wednesday issue of the Rensselaer Republican has more and also a better picture.

A couple weeks ago there was another house fire on the far east side of town. This past week the debris from that fire, which was located on the east side of Melville Street near the White Castle Bakery, was cleared away.

To the north of this house that burned on Sunday, south of American Melt Blown, a new house has been started. This strip of land is being used by Fuller Center for Housing, which used to be Habitat for Humanity.

The sidewalk that was ripped up on the corner of SR 114 and US 231 was being re-installed on Monday and Tuesday.

On Wednesday it was open for pedestrian traffic.

I talked to some of the workers who are installing cables for rail crossings on both Cullen and Jefferson Streets. I asked what the plans were for the Jefferson Street crossing and he said that it would have a gate. There are future plans to do something on the Mattheson Street crossing, but not in this go-around.

I could not resist this picture from the scrap yard.

In addition to work on the rail crossings, Cullen along the railroad has work being done on the elevator. Earlier this week there were long metal tubes next to Walnut Street and on Wednesday a crane was lifting a man to the top of the structure.

I was happy to see a farmer in the field though I do not know what he was doing.

Crops may not be planted yet, but people are busy harvesting their grass. Wednesday morning I saw a City truck picking up grass clippings and it was full.

There was a ground breaking ceremony recently in Pulaski County near West Central High School for a three-acre green house that will grow lettuce and other salad greens. The company making the investment is called Eden Valley Farms and you can learn more from its Facebook page.

On Wednesday a crew was putting up "Road Work" signs.

I think this is for work on SR 114. Sidewalks along the highway are marked up because the State will be redoing the sidewalk ramps. Here is all I could find in a quick search:

RENARTWAL plans to go ahead with phase 2 of the murals and announced one of the five artists who will participate, Ricky Watts. See what he does here.

The painting below recently appeared on the fence next to Embers Station.

It appeared to me that the dirt in the Town Mall lot has been smoothed and planted with grass.

Many of the stores that are open have gone to curb-side service.

The hospital is not open to visitors.

Folks over in White County are optimistic that Indiana Beach may be re-opening because the word "permanently" was crossed out on the Indiana Beach Facebook page.

Several months ago while looking for obituaries on microfilm, I found this in a September, 1932 issue of the Jasper County Democrat. It has provided inspiration that has kept me occupied for the past couple of months.

However, that is a story that belongs on another one of my blogs.