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.