The Rensselaer City Council met on Monday evening with a long agenda. It began by approving a request from St. Augustine's School to close a bit of Susan Street on October 3 for the annual Fall Frolic. It also had no objections to the use of streets for the October 3rd 5K to raise scholarship funds in memory of Jared Valentine.
The Trash-Sanitation Department ordinance will do away with the stickers and set rates at $17.85 a month in 2021, $18.45 a month in 2022, and $19.00 a month in 2023. These will be billed on the monthly utility bill. The Sewer Rate Ordinance will increase rates by 8% in 2021, another 8% in 2022, and a further 6% in 2023. The Water Utility rate will increase by a total of 13% in increments of 6%, 4%, and 3% over three years. The ordinances are of the type that need to be approved in two separate meetings to take effect. The Council voted to approve them all at this first reading. The Council will vote again, probably at the first meeting in October, at which time there will also be a public hearing. (Might be an interesting meeting.) The reason for the delay until October is that the public hearing must be properly advertised.
The meeting then took up more routine matters. An amendment to the 2021 Salary Ordinance was approved that establishes rewards for 40 years of City employment, a bonus of $400 and a jacket with a City of Rensselaer emblem. The gas tracker for September will be an increase of 3.85¢ per hundred cubic feet. Four bids were opened for financing the purchase of a new aerial truck for the Fire Department. They ranged from 1.379% for seven years to 3.172% for ten years. The bids were given to a committee to evaluate. The 2021 health insurance policy for City employees will be a 18.7% decrease.
The City Gas Department received permission to replace its 2005 service truck that has more than 150,000 miles. It may take a year from ordering to delivery. The committee recently established to advise the Council on a golf-cart ordinance punted and brought the matter back to the Council without a recommendation. Many area towns have a golf-cart ordinance and they usually have a variety of restrictions of when, where, and who. Arguments for cited convenience and increased socializing by citizens and arguments against mentioned safety concerns. The matter was tabled until the next meeting so Council members could do further research.
There were two requests for public-relations funds, both approved. One was from the American Legion for their 32nd Annual Thanksgiving dinner which this year will be carry-out only. The other was for a retirement party for Claude Grow, who is superintendent of the power plant.
The Council approved trick & treating hours of 5:00 to 7:00 on Halloween. If people do not want to participate, they should keep their porch light off.
George Cover again expressed concern about the rail crossing on Cullen. I took a look at it and it has never been finished. Apparently there is a 800 number on the crossing to call if there are problems, but I forgot to look for it.
As I was leaving, I heard a conversation in the hallway mention that the building in the alley behind Fenwick Farms Brewing would be demolished on Tuesday. About noon on Tuesday I stopped by to see what was happening.
In the evening I stopped by again to see how much they had finished in a day.
On Tuesday evening the Jasper County Council had its September meeting. The first order of business was approving the 2021 budget. Before reading a long list of numbers, Rein Bontreger noted that there was no room in the budget this year to give County employees raises. The budget is about $100,000 less than last year and the Council expects a couple of tight years ahead, in part because state income taxes will be down this year. (What the State gives to the County is delayed, so taxes collected this year affect future spending.) At the end of the meeting, it was noted that the County's assessed valuation decreased and the property tax rate increased.
After approving the budget, the Council listened to presentations for four non-binding reviews. The first was the Rensselaer School Corporation, which has to present its budget to the Council because it has an appointed Board. The Corporation has been cutting staff because enrollment has been decreasing, something common in rural counties. However, there have been some staff added this year to handle on-line students. The Corporation's budget includes $2.07 million for debt service, which is down a bit from last year. Superintendent Craig mentioned the newly-paved parking lot and a change in traffic patterns to make the flow of vehicles smoother when school lets out. In response to a question, he said that fewer students are riding buses this year. The School Board has raised pay for substitute teachers, from $52 a day to $75 a day for those without a teaching license and from $88 to $100 for those with a license.
Next up was the Airport budget. The Airport is doing a master plan for the next 20-25 years. Fuel sales have increased this year compared to last year, and last year had the highest fuel sales ever. The Airport is postponing a new hangar project and as a result there is a reduction of $335,000 in its cumulative building fund. All bays in the two newest hangars are leased. There are a few vacancies in the WWII-era hangar but that is because some of the bays that have problems that are not economical to fix.
Next were brief presentations from the Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District and the Iroquois Conservancy. The Waste District serves six counties and is completely funded by fees from the landfills in White and Newton Counties. It has to present to the Jasper County Council because Jasper County has the largest assessed valuation of the six counties it serves. It was suggested that after NIPSCO closes its Wheatfield plant, White County may surpass Jasper County. The Iroquois Conservancy mostly removes log jams in the Iroquois River in Jasper and Newton Counties. It uses drones to search the river for log jams, which often will move downstream with time.
With the review of these budgets completed, the Council considered three additional appropriations. Animal Control needed additional funds to pay part-time employees through the end of the year. In the previous meeting the Council had granted part of a request and told Mr Sinclair to return for the rest, asking him to consider cutting hours. They pointed out that his budget for next year would require him to cut part-time pay, so eventually they passed an additional appropriation of only part of what he had requested, an amount that they hope will force him to adjust to what is in the budget for next year.
The Coroner's office requested $7500 additional in its autopsy line and $4916 in the line for pathologist expenses. There have more autopsies this year and the office had received notice from the auditor that the amount in the budgeted line was running very low. The Deputy Coroner explained that they rarely spend the amount in the line for pathologists, and this year when the COVID crisis hit, their office had provided various related supplies to other County departments because they had quick access to them that other departments did not have. Much of those expenses will be reimbursed, but the funds will go back into the general fund. After discussing whether a transfer rather than an additional appropriation would work, the Council approved the additional $7500, did not allow the $4916, and instructed the Auditor to put whatever money was reimbursed by the Cares Act into the budget for pathologist expenses.
Next the Council approved an additional appropriation of $7570 for the Health Department. They were for expenses related to the retirement of the former health nurse.
The Veteran's Office requested a transfer of $1200 from transportation to furniture. The Council did not think it had enough information on the request and tabled it.
There was no update on audio and visual technology for the Commissioners' room. The County has received two reimbursements from FEMA for expenses of the Kankakee/Yellow River project, one for $116,509 and the other for $199,284.82. They will repay the bank loan made to pay the invoices for work done.
Next up was the Airport budget. The Airport is doing a master plan for the next 20-25 years. Fuel sales have increased this year compared to last year, and last year had the highest fuel sales ever. The Airport is postponing a new hangar project and as a result there is a reduction of $335,000 in its cumulative building fund. All bays in the two newest hangars are leased. There are a few vacancies in the WWII-era hangar but that is because some of the bays that have problems that are not economical to fix.
Next were brief presentations from the Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District and the Iroquois Conservancy. The Waste District serves six counties and is completely funded by fees from the landfills in White and Newton Counties. It has to present to the Jasper County Council because Jasper County has the largest assessed valuation of the six counties it serves. It was suggested that after NIPSCO closes its Wheatfield plant, White County may surpass Jasper County. The Iroquois Conservancy mostly removes log jams in the Iroquois River in Jasper and Newton Counties. It uses drones to search the river for log jams, which often will move downstream with time.
With the review of these budgets completed, the Council considered three additional appropriations. Animal Control needed additional funds to pay part-time employees through the end of the year. In the previous meeting the Council had granted part of a request and told Mr Sinclair to return for the rest, asking him to consider cutting hours. They pointed out that his budget for next year would require him to cut part-time pay, so eventually they passed an additional appropriation of only part of what he had requested, an amount that they hope will force him to adjust to what is in the budget for next year.
The Coroner's office requested $7500 additional in its autopsy line and $4916 in the line for pathologist expenses. There have more autopsies this year and the office had received notice from the auditor that the amount in the budgeted line was running very low. The Deputy Coroner explained that they rarely spend the amount in the line for pathologists, and this year when the COVID crisis hit, their office had provided various related supplies to other County departments because they had quick access to them that other departments did not have. Much of those expenses will be reimbursed, but the funds will go back into the general fund. After discussing whether a transfer rather than an additional appropriation would work, the Council approved the additional $7500, did not allow the $4916, and instructed the Auditor to put whatever money was reimbursed by the Cares Act into the budget for pathologist expenses.
Next the Council approved an additional appropriation of $7570 for the Health Department. They were for expenses related to the retirement of the former health nurse.
The Veteran's Office requested a transfer of $1200 from transportation to furniture. The Council did not think it had enough information on the request and tabled it.
There was no update on audio and visual technology for the Commissioners' room. The County has received two reimbursements from FEMA for expenses of the Kankakee/Yellow River project, one for $116,509 and the other for $199,284.82. They will repay the bank loan made to pay the invoices for work done.
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