Phase one is done

A ribbon cutting at Foundation Park on Wednesday marked the end of Phase One of the Parks for People campaign. Phase One included all the work that has been done at Foundation Park plus the new dog park on Bunkum Road. Phase Two is the new ball fields at Brookside. There will be a Phase Three and perhaps a Phase Four.

The Board of Public Works and the City Council met in Zoom meetings on Monday afternoon, with the BPW having the longer agenda. The PPW approved fireworks for the Fair Board for the last day of the Fair, August 1. It also approved an invoice from Commonwealth Engineering for $6023.03 for engineering work that is now 54% completed. There is still a holdup in getting approval for the site of the new lift station. The Board also approved a legal services agreement that is related to the revenue bonds for the sewer project.

The only item on the Council's agenda was a gas tracker increase of 1.5¢ per hundred cubic feet. The Mayor announced that the June 22 meeting will be an in-person meeting at City Hall at 4:00 in the afternoon. There was a request from a person organizing a protest rally/march on Thursday to close Van Rensselaer Street in front of City Hall. It was rejected unanimously but parking along the Court-House side will be banned on Thursday. The gas-line tapping into the Trunkline main is beginning. (The Commissioners approved the the route of the pipeline along County Roads at their July meeting.) While SR 114 is closed this week, the City will be working on water-main items.

Gasoline prices have been above $2.00 for a couple of weeks. I wonder if we will ever see $1.699 again in Rensselaer.

Mural alley from Front to Van Rensselaer was paved on Tuesday. Early in the morning a layer of tar was sprayed.

A few hours later the paving machine came through the alley.

On Monday the CSX crew erected the second crossing gate structure on Jefferson Street. Neither the Cullen or Jefferson Street gate is working yet.

The Brookside Pool now has water in it. It is scheduled to open on the 17th. No season passes, just day rates; $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for those under 14.

Finally, this blog reached a milestone of sorts this past week when its page-view counter went over 1,500,000. I am not sure exactly how that is measured, but it sounds good.

The trend, however, does not look good, though it may reflect a change in the way that Facebook prioritizes what people see and a falling off of shares on Facebook. The peak is for December, 2017 and I do not know why it was so high. None of the 12 posts that month had especially large page views.