August odds and ends

The Rensselaer City Council met Monday evening for its final August meeting. The Council approved minutes of its last meeting and also of a special Council meeting held at the end of July to discuss budget cuts. At that meeting the Council agreed to delay some road work to reduce the projected deficit and to give employees a 1% raise. (For more, see the minutes here.)

County Commissioner Kendell Culp asked the Council to waive the building permit fees for the remodeling of the former Youth Center on Sparling Avenue. The County Health Department will move there once remodeling is finished. The Council approved the waiving of fees. It also approved the closing of Van Renselaer Street in front of City Hall for Oktober Fest scheduled for September 26. There were requests for transfers of funds for three departments that were approved.

The Council then discussed and approved a contract with a firm to sell equipment in the power plant. Rensselaer is no longer providing power to IMPA and therefore has no need for the generating equipment. The contract has a three year term and if equipment is sold, the firm will take a 20% commission, which is low for this type of sale of highly specialized equipment.

The Fire Chief asked the Council to allow him to secure financing for and purchase a new aerial truck. The projected cost is $1.476 million before discounts and that cost will rise if the order is placed after September 30. The current truck operates but leaks hydraulic fluid, so is unreliable and may not be repairable.

MainStreet Rensselaer requested $200 for a sponsorship for Oktober Fest, which was approved, as was a request for flowers for an employee's son. City Attorney Ahler said that IMPA was not open to changing the termination notice because of financing considerations. On the recommendation of the City's Project Manager, clean-up week, which had been postponed from May, was canceled for this year. Largely as a result of the recent storm, 100 truck loads of bush and branches were removed from the City. Work on US 231 may finish this week. And the Fire Department's annual fish fry will take place on Friday from 4:00 to 8:00. It will be carry-out only and the cost is $10 per person.

Oktober Fest is not the only event on the September Calendar. A week earlier, on September 19, the third annual Memories Alive in Weston Cemetery is scheduled. There will be changes this year. There will be no golf carts for those who are mobility challenged. Instead there will be a morning performance at 11:00 in the Hall Shelter in Brookside Park. Seating is limited because of the need to space out chairs. The afternoon performance will have the same format as in previous years, with groups circulating through the eight stations in the western part of Weston Cemetery. Tickets cost $10 ($5 for children) and are available at Browns, Jordans, and Willow Switch. The afternoon performance also has fixed number of spaces available. More information is available here, including a preliminary program.

I noticed that the paper was no longer in the windows at the former Sears store in the College Mall so I stopped in. YNG (You'll Never Guess) has added it as a second location because they are growing too big for their quarters behind Jordans Floral. On the right you can see some of their upside down printers (video in this post). The video may explain why they invented this, but I did not remember so I asked. The advantage is that when a job is done, gravity can be used to drop the finished item off the plate and then another item can be printed. The printers, once programmed, require minimum human intervention and can run around the clock.

YNG is starting to make its own filament used for printing. You can see three rolls of their filament on the table. Behind are two very large boxes of plastic beads, the raw material for making the filament. They are taking a step out of their supply chain. Most 3-D printer filament is made in China.

The Manpower office in Rensselaer is closed and has been for some time. The Party Time business of renting party equipment is for sale. The new storage building on Melville is scheduled for completion on October 1. It has ten spaces, each 16' wide, 16' tall, and 48' deep. Several are already rented.

The Prairie Arts Council will return to exhibiting in the Fendig Gallery in September with a new show.

On Wednesday afternoon Reith and Riley were paving in downtown Rensselaer.

The Francesville Catholic church, St Francis Solano, has shut its doors as part of the diocesan reorganization of parishes. Some of the parishioners will be joining St. Augustine in Rensselaer.