Parking lots and meetings

I noticed that members of the class of 2021 had been painting parking lot spaces so I stopped by to see what they had done.

Last year was the first year in which seniors painted parking spaces.

The high school parking lot north of the school has been totally ripped out and will be repaved.

The Commissioners met on Monday in a fairly routine meeting. They decided to keep the Court House and other County Buildings closed to the public through August and the first week of September. They will meet again on September 8 to decide what to do going forward. If a court needs to have a jury trial, additional protocols will be established.

A representative from Trane reported that the company was finishing its punch list for the Jail HVAC changes and had started to put pilings in the ground for the small solar park east of the Jail. A representative from Titan discussed plans for remodeling the former Youth Center on Sparling Avenue for use by the Health Department. The cost will be less than $150,000, the threshold which triggers the need for competitive bidding for the project. The Commissioners approved a revised floor plan and Titan as the contractor. They also approved giving supplies left by the Youth Center to two non-profit early-childhood centers, one in Remington and another that is starting in Rensselaer. County offices, however, can take whatever they need before the supplies are given away.

The Commissioners approved the change in the County's UDO that was passed by the Plan Commission. It clarifies the legal notice that must be given in the newspaper. There was a request for a speed limit on a stretch of CR 1000 N that will be considered again at September's meeting. The Commissioners approved a request from Rensselaer MainStreet to use some of the Court House lawn for Oktoberfest on September 26. The event will have to follow the guidelines of the Health Department. Bruce Wood was appointed to fill the remainder of the term of Kim DeWees on the Airport Authority Board.

The Highway Department opened bids for some kind of paving. The bids were quoted in terms of dollars per ton of asphalt. All were accepted, as is the practice for supply bids for the Highway Department. The County Clerk was given permission to fill two vacancies. Someone from the Lower Kankakee Watershed Initiative wanted a letter of support for a planned grant application. The goal of the group is to get sediment and nutrients out of the water. The Commissioners wanted to make sure that the grant also had support of the Kankakee and Yellow River Commission as well as the Iroquois River Conservancy.

The Council Budget Hearings will begin at 7:00 pm on August 18 and are tentatively set for the conference room in the former Youth Center on Sparling Avenue. They continue on the 19th at 8:30 am. The Court House will soon have an automated phone system with an option to connect to a live person. The Commissioners continued the meeting until August 17 if necessary and then went into executive session to open and discuss EMS proposals that were due at 9:55 that morning.

In the evening the Rensselaer Park Board met in Iroquois Park. Someone mentioned that the car show had had 177 cars entered, breaking the previous record high entries of 143. The Blacker Fields are getting netting installed but the fields have not yet been seeded.

The walking path is finished. Disc golf was approved by the Parks for People committee. There will be no fall soccer program. The last day for the pool will be August 16. The next meeting will be September 8. More culverts in the dog park have been decorated.