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.