18 minutes

The agenda for the City Council meeting on May 26 was short and resulted in a meeting that lasted only 18 minutes. It was another Zoom meeting.The only agenda item of significance was the Council's appointment of a Rensselaer Central School Board member. There were three applicants. The Council voted unanimously to appoint Rick Odle to the Board.

There were several announcements and progress reports. Mr Haun, the building inspector, reported that construction activity had picked up. Mr Effinger said that the Park Board would decide in its meeting on June 1 whether or not to open the pool this summer. Mr Daniels said that the recycling center had been open and people were asked to stay in their cars when dropping off recycling. Mr Overton complimented the Cemetery staff for the fine job they did decorating the Cemetery for Memorial Day.

At the last Park Board meeting someone said that the Morocco Pool would not be open this summer. That decision either was not made or has been reversed. The pool will be open this summer.

The Memorial Day commemoration at Weston Cemetery was brief this year. The featured speaker was State Representative Doug Gutwein. There was no seating set up and people were asked to stay in or near their cars.

Other things: The grass has come in nicely on the lot that was the Town Mall.

I saw a wedding reception downtown over the weekend. It is nice to see life coming back to normal.

Busy Bee has been open for about a week.

The foundation is in for the Fuller Center house on Elm. Further east, there is activity at the former Genova plant. Checking the Internet reveals that a Salt Lake City Company, Plastic Services and Products, has purchased the assets of Genova. There is not much information available that I can find.

The Horton-Yallaly Building has new windows on its Cullen Street side.

Concrete work was being done at the Blacker Fields in Brookside Park.

There are some unusual railroad machines parked in Rensselaer.

A tie breaker

The Iroquois River crested on Monday a few inches below flood stage. Fortunately we had less rain that northern Illinois and Michigan received. Weston Lake is back and has had lots of frogs and toads making noise. I believe that Weston Lake was part of a loop of the Iroquois River before the River was dredged and straightened.

The County Council meeting on Tuesday featured an issue that sharply divided the members of the Council. The Airport Authority wants to acquire land to the west that will eventually allow the construction of an east-west runway. (This was mentioned in a post here.)

 The Airport Authority has the opportunity to purchase an 80-acre tract to the west of the land it purchased in the last year or two. It would like to acquire this land because it would eventually allow the construction of an east-west runway. Only 47.3 of those acres are needed for its plans, but the owner of the lot does not want to split it. The Authority has the right to purchase that land with its own funds, but it would like the FAA to finance it, and to get that help from the FAA, it needed to have the County Council approve the appropriation of funds, in this case, $690,000 for the 47.3 acres. The FAA will reimburse about $660,000 over three years in four payments. Councilmen questioned this purchase, asking whether a second, longer runway was really needed and wondering if, given the financial stringency that will soon face state and local governments, this was the right time to be spending money. The Airport's argument was that they had a willing seller now and might not have that in the future, that they were bringing in federal dollars that would otherwise go elsewhere, and that when there were strong cross winds, many planes could not use the existing north-south runway. The discussion went on for some time, and when the vote was finally taken, there were three against (Risner, Norwine, and Fritts) and three for (Andree, Jordan, and DeVries). That meant it was up to the president of the Council, Mr Bontreger, to cast the tie-breaking vote. He voted in favor, so the land acquisition has passed this hurdle.

The Council approved an agreement with First Merchants that sets up a line of credit. It will be used to finance work on the Kankakee River. FEMA will reimburse the County for work that is done, but only after the County pays for it, so the line of credit makes sure that the County has the funds needed to pay bills when they are presented.

There was only one tax abatement continuance that had to be approved, that of Wilson Industrial. It is nearing its end of life because it was granted in 2011 and they usually run ten years. The abatement for Remington Seeds no longer needs County approval because their property was annexed by Remington and the abatement for Advance Auto was only for personal property and for some reason this did not need approval.

Someone noted that tax revenue collections to date are $13 million, down from last year's $16 million, but the decline is mostly because the largest taxpayer in the County has taken advantage of the Governor's permission to delay payment until July.

The Council reappointed a member of the Library Board and set the dates for budget hearings. The Jordan Township Trustee made a presentation about what the Township was doing with its balances, which have grown to the point where the Township needs to report a plan to the Council. The Sheriff said he would like to be able to offer his staff some kind of reward for working though the shutdown but the Council decided to delay discussion of that idea to a future meeting. The meeting adjourned about an hour and a half after it started.

On Monday evening the Jasper County Plan Commission met with a request to rezone a parcel from R1 (residential) to A2 (agricultural). The parcel is located in Keener Township, along the east side of I-65, a bit to the south of the rest area. It is a narrow triangle of land that is about 14 acres and to its north is a residential subdivision.

The reason for the rezone request was that the owners want to be able to have a horse or horses on the property and the R1 zoning does not allow that. After discussion, the Commission sent a recommendation to the Commissioners to allow the rezone with the condition that no more than five horses be allowed and no other farm animals.

A garden crop that is in its prime but which I have not seen at the Farmers Market is rhubarb. Someone asked me about an old recipe and I did quick search on the Internet. I was surprised to find that it did not become used as food in Europe until the 18th century when sugar became abundant.

Finally, here are the times for absentee voting, which in Rensselaer is at the annex building that once was the REMC building (corner of Clark Cullen and Kellner).

Odds and ends 5-18-20

Business are starting to reopen in Rensselaer, though with restrictions. There is more traffic on the streets and gas prices have risen from the low of $1.699. The last price I saw was $1.899.

We have had quite a bit of rain in the past few days and the river is rising and approaching flood stage, which is 12 feet at the gauging station at Laird's Landing. Unless we get more rain, I think it will crest very close to 12 feet, either a bit above or a bit below.

On Friday JCEDO hosted its fourth Community Roundtable on Zoom. The first featured speaker was Curtis Craig, superintendent of the Rensselaer Central Schools. He began by noting that the schools provide a lot of activities in addition to education. He said that what the fall will bring is still uncertain and they need to be flexible and plan options. The schools are preparing to do more sanitizing. Graduation will be on July 11 in the evening. People can keep up with what is happening at the schools by visiting the school corporation's website.

Carlos Vasquez from Franciscan Health Rensselaer said that the surge in Covid cases never came. Anyone who tested positive was transferred to the Lafayette Covid unit. The hospital resumed elective surgery on May 4 but is not back to a full level. They maintained their therapy treatments because stopping them would have been harmful to some patients. AlternaCare remains on tight lockdown with only employees allowed to enter. The Jasper-Newton Foundation provided four iPads so residents could video chat with family.

Kerry Disinger from Work One said that all their staff is working from home. They are taking steps to resume office work and may start June 11. If they do, office visits will be by appointment. They are doing a lot of things virtually and are trying to help unemployed find temporary positions until their permanent jobs return.

In the comments section of the meeting, we learned that the Caboose Campground at Remington will open Memorial Day, but they expect the weekend after will be bigger. Their seasonals, those who park their RVs at the campground for the summer, are starting to come in. Another participant runs Stone Creek Woods, an event venue that is north of Mount Ayr, and it is open.

At the Airport pilot ground school has started with five students.  There is an internship available in June and July for a high school student interested in airport management. The renovation of the building that JCEDO bought is coming along and JCECO hopes to be in the upstairs offices by the middle or end of July and have the downstairs ready to rent by October. They are investing about $225,000 in the renovation.

The staff at the library is again back in the library working staggered schedules and answering the phones. The books drops are open and items that are returned are quarantined. Curbside service is coming soon. There will be a virtual story time in June and a virtual summer reading program in July. The next meeting of the Jasper County Council (Tuesday evening) will be on Zoom. There will be interesting budget decisions coming up because tax revenues are down significantly. The REMC lobby is opening Monday and people are asked to wear masks. There will be no roundtable next Friday because of Memorial Day weekend.

For more, see the files here. Files from last week's roundtable are here.

I saw corn coming up in a field north of town on Sunday. The Farmers Market is going strong. A new vendor this year is Coffin Coffee.  You can see where they are at the market because their company vehicle an old hearse. It is a part-time business located in Jasper County that sells mostly on-line. It got started almost by accident. The website is here. (I am not a coffee drinker so I cannot give an opinion on their coffee.) The alley behind eMbers has been milled and should be paved in the next week or two.

I tried to join the Airport Authority Board meeting on Thursday but never got in.

Zooming along at the meetings

The Rensselaer City Council met via Zoom on Monday afternoon for its first May meeting. There was supposed to be a Board of Public Works meeting before the Council meeting but technical difficulties pushed it to after the Council meeting. The Council approved a transfer of funds and a gas tracker decrease of 7½¢ per hundred cubic feet. It also approved a waste disposal contract that locks in the current rates for two years with increases after that. The purpose of this contract was to provide certainty as the City and its consultants decide what to do with the garbage stickers. It also ratified a poll of May 4 that extended to May 11 the amendment to the pay ordinance that allows City employees to work from home and be paid.

I missed the Tax Abatement meeting of May 5 that recommended all abatements for ConAgra, IMPA, and National Gypsum be continued. The City Council accepted their recommendation and approved the abatements. There was also a new abatement proposal, for Indiana Facemasks. It is locating in the former Greene Furniture buildings and is investing $650,000 in equipment. The Council approved the new abatement.

The Mayor recommended and the Council approved $500 from the public relations fund for the RenArtWlk project. Several nationally recognized street artists will be coming as well as seven or eight Indiana artists. In the next few weeks the alley running from Front to VanRensselaer behind eMbers will be paved. RenArtWlk will use seven lifts and they are hard and dangerous to operate on the rough surface that the alley currently has. Most of the art will be done on this alley and the alley between VanRensselaer and Cullen, though there may be a bit that spills over to the alley one block to the southeast (behind Fenwick Farms).

Then the Council did something unusual. It voted down two proposals. The first was something that had come up at the last meeting and been tabled. It would extend the amount of time that several employees had to take their vacation days. The motion was to not change the current policy and it was unanimously approved, which meant that the time to take vacation days was not extended. Then the Police Chief requested that the Council give the officers and dispatchers an additional three personal days (they have four) for dealing with the stress of the Covid situation. It was also rejected with the comment that the City did not know what its finances would be going forward.

The next Council meeting will be on the 26th of May rather than Monday the 25 because the 25th is Memorial Day. The Council has received two applicants for the school board position it fills and they will decide which to choose at the next meeting.

A few minutes after the City Council meeting ended, the delayed Board of Public Works meeting began. It approved paying an invoice for designing work for waste-water treatment changes for $21,286.17. The work is one schedule. The site for the new lift station is still not fixed. It cannot go near the current station because of flood plain restriction but it might go just to the south of the high-rate treatment plant on Lincoln Street. (The space to the west of the current high-rate plant is saved for any future expansion that may be needed.)

The Board also approved the promotion of a police officer to first class patrolman.

Dirt moving and spreading continues at the Blacker Fields. What is new is there is now some black topsoil on a couple of the fields. Dirt moving is entering its final stage.

 The funny machine below is taking the topsoil that was placed in a big pile at the north end of the park a few months ago and spreading it on the fields.

A cold snap

Last night we got some unusually cold weather for May, with the temperatures down to 27° or 28°. There was not a lot of frost because the air was so dry. We will have to wait a few days to see what it killed. Or maybe we may have to wait longer to see what it did to fruit trees that had bloomed and set fruit.

On Wednesday and Thursday a CSX crew was installing the new crossing gates on Cullen Street. The gates are still lacking arms.

A Titan Construction crew was erecting scoreboards at the ballfields at Brookside Park. The one below had extra long legs.

It was for Roth Field and had to be high enough to fit over the outfield fence.

Dirt continues to arrive and be spread on the fields.

The crews doing the sidewalk ramps along SR 114 are either finished or almost finished pouring concrete along Clark Street. They still have Cullen and Grace Street sidewalks to finish.

The Spring Trail was canceled but there is something new in Milroy Park, the Senior Trail. 

It is not for senior citizens but rather the graduating seniors from RCHS. On Friday the wind was testing the hanging ability of those who put out the exhibit.

On Friday morning JCEDO had its fourth weekly community roundtable.  The first presenter was Lori Feldt from the Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center. She recommended some on-line resources, especially backontrack.in.gov. She urged small businesses to let their customers know what they are doing and noted that the Paycheck Protection Program is still alive and still has funds available. Next Helen Brincefield, who Rensselaer remembers as Helen Heinig, outlined steps small businesses could take to effectively use social media to reach customers.

Then it was time for those attending to make comments. The Jasper Newton Foundation raised $29,000 in seven day through their Giving Tuesday promotion. Most of the money was raised for specific non-profits. The Jasper County Airport will be having a ground school instruction coming up and said that they have had several rentals of their recently-purchased plane. Some restaurants will be opening next week for indoor service with limited seating. The Memories Alive Weston Cemetery Walk is still being planned for September 19. REMC has helped Roselawn get lighting up and operable at their ball fields. It also is one of four groups that is sponsoring eight scholarships to an entrepreneur and enterprise class that Ivy Tech will offer on-line this summer.

A few days ago I noticed the door was open to the building that JCEDO is remodeling and I peeked in and took a picture.

Summer plans

The Rensselaer Park Board met on Monday evening in an on-line Zoom meeting to decide the fate of summer programs. After discussion, they decided to go forward with a season of youth baseball that will have practices start June 1 and games June 14. The reason for June 14 is this is the date of the start of the Governor's Stage 4, when large groups can be together. The season will be extended through most of July. The 176 kids who have signed up will be contacted to ask if they are still interested. If they are not, they will have their entry fee refunded. If they agree to go forward, there will be no refunds even if events cause the season to be shortened or canceled. There will be no organized team pictures this year.

Park Shelters will be available for rental after June 14. The programs that Heather Hall organizes will be scaled back and a new schedule prepared. The Spring Trail that was planned for April was canceled, but there will soon be a Senior Trail in Milroy Park. It will honor the graduating seniors from RCHS.

There was a long discussion of what to do with the LaRue Pool. The summer swim team season will not happen this year and the pool in DeMotte will not open. Kentland has not made a decision on whether they will open their pool and no one knew what Morocco was deciding. The Governor's guidelines say that pools can be open after May 24 with restrictions. There was concern that opening the pool entails several thousand dollars of expenses for water and chemicals and that if the pool then has to be shut, that money will have been wasted. There was also concern about the availability of life guards. Training that normally would have taken place in the high school pool was not done this spring and there are only eight guards signed up. However, because other pools will be or may be closed, some of the people who guarded at these pools may be interested in guarding at Rensselaer. Eventually the Board decided not to make a decision at this meeting but to poll the Board members in two weeks for a decision. (If you have strong feelings one way or the other, contact a Board member or leave comments on this blog or social media. The City website does not have a list of Board members and only has a telephone number for contact.)

This year there were plans to dedicate a plaque to Jimmy McFall, the boy whose drowning in the quarry spurred the building of the pool. No one wondered if keeping the pool might encourage some kids to find other swimming options.

Nothing has been done yet with adult softball and the recommendation was to put out some publicity and see if there is enough interest to have a summer season.

Thousands of dollars of free labor have been supplied by local contractors working on park projects. In the next three weeks a lot of work will be done on the Blacker Fields. This week work on putting the topsoil back on the fields is underway.

I forgot to mention in the previous post that there will be early, in-person voting for the Primary Election for those who do not want to do the absentee ballots. Early voting will start May 26. In Rensselaer the polling site will be the former prosecutor's office in what was originally the REMC building. For more, see here.

Trying to make sense of the what is happening with the Corona Virus is almost impossible because there are so few reliable numbers. We have data on how many people have been tested and how many of those tests are positive, but what we do not have is data on how many people, tested or not, have been exposed to the virus. When populations in prisons or factories are tested, most of the people who test positive have had few or no symptoms. We have numbers on how many have died with the virus, but without knowing how many have had the virus, we do not know the death rate and how deadly this disease is. We do know that it is very dangerous in nursing homes and other facilities that care for the elderly and that it seems not to be much of a problem for the young. In the coming years the current response to this virus will be evaluated and re-evaluated. My guess is that a consensus will gradually form that there was a massive overreaction to it, that the "cure" was worse than the disease.

A tale of three meetings (5-4-2020)

Over the weekend I was surprised to see that geese now are swimming with goslings.

The third JCEDO weekly roundtable met on Friday morning without the head of JCEDO. Brienne Hooker of the Jasper-Newton Foundation served as host. There were three presentations on the agenda. First Cindy Urbano from the Rotary Club of DeMotte-Kankakee spoke, telling what they were doing to help their communities. The Rotary Ramble, a 5K held each August, is still on, though that may change. Next Jonathan Cripe reported that Remington Mainstreet was trying to get funding for more murals. Remington Mainstreet recently got a grant to finish the area around the restored depot. The Town of Remington is extending water lines and will be opening bids for a sewer extension. There is a new industrial park coming.

Next up was Ryan Musch for RenArtWlk. Much of the programming that had been planned for mural week (June 28-July 4) will not happen as originally planned but the murals will. RenArtWlk is close to hitting their funding goal and has received three large grants. Lots of local people are involved and anyone who is interested can join in. Focus will be on wall coverage and color. There will be seven major artists from out of state and  there is a goal of getting 10 Indiana artists to come in later in the week.

Then the other participants in the meeting were given a chance to say something. Many said they were waiting for the Governor's press conference later in the day where he would outline plans to reopen the State. (See here for a summary and links. I am not sure what it means for retail businesses to open at 50% capacity–how does one determine that?)

If you have ideas for good stories, the KV Post and Rensselaer Republican are interested in hearing them. A couple people suggested that the disruption may have benefits in that it has made people be creative and do things in ways they would never otherwise have done, and some of this will result in permanent changes and improvements. The high school is looking at options for graduation. It will not be indoors but it might be held in the football stadium, or the parking lot, or on-line, depending on what will be allowed. NITCO is keeping communications working but their office is closed though the staff is working. Doug Gutwein said that American Melt Blown and Filtration has had the equipment shipped that they will be installing at what was Greenes' Furniture, but it has not yet arrived. The Tyson meat processing plant in Logansport has had hundreds of its workers test positive for coronavirus (though I have not seen how many were seriously ill.)

The Airport has canceled many events but has a possible internship for a high-school student. The Carnegie Center is featured on the back cover of the Indiana Landmarks Magazine. The Chamber of Commerce's shred day has been moved to late June. May 5 will be Community Day with an emphasis on shopping locally. Rein Bontreger, President of the Jasper County Council, said there are some economic things bubbling but provided no further information. Ryan Musch said that a lot of eMbers Venue events had been rescheduled. Stephanie Johnson from REMC said they are working on scholarships. They have helped the Field of Dreams in DeMotte and another ball field in Roselawn get poles for lights. REMC made its largest grant ever to Tri-County schools for a summer feeding program.

Mayor Wood said that he would ask the Council for some funds to help the RenArtWlk. OCRA grants have been suspended but the City will re-apply in August to begin downtown revitalization. After work on SR 114 is finished, the State will be repaving US 231 from the bridge over the Iroquois to CR 400S.

On Monday morning the County Commissioners met in a Zoom meeting. They decided that starting on Tuesday the Highway Department and the Assessor's Office would go to regular hours and that starting on May 11 the rest of County offices would go to regular hours. County buildings would remain closed to the public. Employees would be asked to keep social distance and wear masks.

A primary election is coming in June, delayed from May. The Clerk's office is still encouraging people to vote absentee. To initiate the process, call 866-4929 and request a ballot. You will get an application for a ballot in the mail, which you then fill out and turn in. You then get a ballot, which must be mailed back using the stamped envelope.

Many of the normal election workers are elderly and want to sit out this election so there is a need for election workers. If you are interested, call the Clerk's office at the phone number above. There is a stipend of $100, $110, or $135 depending on the position filled. Because of the shutdown, election days will not be County holidays. The Commissioners approved a measure that will allow County workers to work the election and get their normal work pay plus the stipend.

The meeting heard updates from Trane about work at the jail. Control systems are installed but some training still must be done. The solar field that will be built next to the jail has been staked out. The Highway Department said that the replacement of Bridge 263 in the far north of the County may be finished by Friday. County and State highway construction will almost certainly be reduced because people are driving less and thus the taxes collected on the sale of gasoline are down. These taxes fund road improvements.

The County Clerk has an employee leaving and asked to hire a replacement. The Commissioners decided to stick with the no-hires policy that they adopted at the April meeting and decided to not allow the position to be filled at this time.

Judy Kanne, representing the Jasper County Historical Society, noted that the old Parr Post Office building at the Fairgrounds has had substantial rot and the people looking at how to fix it have suggested that it might not be repairable and the best course of action may be to make a replica of the exterior so the interior can be preserved. The Commissioners approved that step if necessary.

The meeting was continued until May 18th, when another session will be held if deemed necessary.

Using the same Zoom meeting, the Drainage Board met shortly after the Commissioners meeting ended. There one interesting item involved a new 117-acre industrial park that will be east of Advance Auto. The proposal had two parts and the whole discussion was hard to follow, not just by me but by all involved. One part of the proposal was for drainage of the industrial park, which is planned for four or five tenants. However, there is one tenant that wants to get started on construction as soon as possible and to do this will have a separate drainage solution. The tenant is Smith Transport and I know that they have a presence in Remington but do not know anything about the company. They will be using 19.42 acres of the 117 acres that will become the industrial park. Also, Remington is in the process of annexing this acreage. 

Colleges and universities are taking a major hit from the Corona Virus panic and lockdown. I have noticed that several former SJC alums have commented on Alumni Facebook pages their opinion that if SJC had managed to stay open, the fallout from the Corona Virus would have doomed them. Perhaps that realization will lessen the pain that remains about the shutdown.

I noted in a recent post that I thought grass had been planted where the Town Mall once stood. The grass is beginning to grow. Perhaps the lot will be a pleasant green come Mural Week.

A few pictures. The Saturday Farmers Markets have started for this year.

I was impressed with the size of this piece of farm equipment that I saw over the weekend. I think it is a 32-row planter. It is folded up so you see only half of how wide it will be when in operation.

Dirt is being moved behind Dollar General and east of the fire station. This land will become a fire-fighter training facility.

At the west end of town some of the sidewalk ramps have been completed.

May begins

There is not much happening in Rensselaer; most events have been canceled. Things are as slow as this snapping turtle I found along Lincoln Street earlier this week. I have no idea where it was going but it did not like me stopping and taking its picture. I kept my distance—I have a healthy respect for snapping turtles.

 Work continues on the installation of crossing gates for the railroad. On Monday the foundations for the gates on Jefferson Street were being prepared.

 Below is the same place on Tuesday. Workers are there off and on. On Thursday some of the parts for the new gates had arrived.

 Work also continues on the ends of sidewalks along SR 114. Most of the sidewalk ends west of downtown have been dug up and a few on the far west side have forms to allow new concrete. We are going to end up with some wonderful sidewalk ramps that lead onto sidewalks that are unfit to walk on. Rensselaer has a lot of very poor sidewalks.

I have been past the Leggett & Platt factory several times in the past couple of weeks and every time their parking lot has been empty. I have not noticed empty parking lots at any other Rensselaer manufacturers. Are people not buying mattresses right now?

This week I saw gas at $159.9 at one of our gas stations.

The City Council met Monday afternoon in another virtual meeting via Zoom. Except at the beginning when Stephen Eastridge had his video feed on, there were no videos from the people attending. There were also no updates from the department heads, which in normal Council meetings can produce the most interesting items from the meeting.

The meeting began with a presentation from Stephen Eastridge who updated what was happening with the Jasper County Economic Development Organization (JCEDO). He had sent out a PowerPoint presentation to Council members and his comments were organized around it. He believes that the key to economic growth is to make Jasper County and Rensselaer attractive places to work and live. To this end JCDEO has five things they focus on: business expansion, workforce development, small business development, public relations, and tourism. Tourism is an unusual item for an economic development office to be working on, but JCEDO houses the Tourism Board that distributes about $190,000 each year that is collected in the inn-keeper tax. (I suspect it will be lower this year because the hotels are probably mostly empty now.) Much of his presentation has been given to other meetings but he did hint that there may be some economic development news for Rensselaer in the near future.

The Council ratified a poll of April 23 extending the amendment to the pay ordinance that was passed a couple of meetings ago. It will probably be extended again at the next meeting. It also approved signing an termination agreement with IMPA that will take Rensselaer out of the electrical generating business. Of the 60 IMPA communities, Rensselaer was the last to still generate electricity.
At one time IMPA paid Rensselaer about a million dollars to keep the generating plant operational. After 2008 that payment was cut in half and as a result the operation is running in the red. The agreement will have IMPA pay Rensselaer about $350,000, which is more than the Mayor expected to get.

 There was a proposal on extending the carry-over of vacation days that was taken under advisement and will probably be taken up at the next meeting. The Park Department has permission to hire two part-time summer workers and the Cemetery one. It was not one of the Council's more eventful meeting.

Finally, I noticed a new path in Brookside Park. It connects Roth Field with the walking path that went from the track to the north parking lot. It will allow people who are watching a game at Roth Field to walk to the new Blacker Fields.