Noise in the morning

 On Wednesday morning I could hear jackhammering. Investigating, I found workers demolishing the basketball court at Brookside Park. This is part of Phase 3 of the Parks for people campaign that includes "Renovated basketball court at Brookside to include new basketball goals and new asphalt playing surface."

NIPSCO announced that it will cooperate with NextEra Energy to build two solar parks in Northeast Jasper County. The project will install over two million solar panels and be capable of generating 900 megawatts of electricity. More details here.

Fenwick Farms new brew house is quickly rising.

There were several meetings this week. On Monday morning the Commissioners met and their major item was approving a revised inter-local agreement with DeMotte to extend sewer and water to the I-65/SR 10 interchange. They had approved an agreement at their regular meeting this month, but there have been substantial changes so they had to approve a new agreement. After that meeting, the Sewer and Water Board met to also approve the agreement. On Wednesday the Jasper County Redevelopment Board met to do the same. I missed the meeting because I did not see the notice for it until the meeting had concluded.

The Jasper County Council met on Tuesday evening and approved the budgets of the Rensselaer Central School Corporation, the Airport, the Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District, and the Iroquois Conservancy. It then approved an additional appropriation to purchase law books for the Superior Court and cut in half a requested transfer requested by the Veterans Service Office. There was a discussion of audio-visual technology for the meeting room in the former youth center. This meeting or conference room seems destined to become the standard meeting room for County meetings because it is much larger than the Commissioners Room at the Court House.

The last big item on the agenda was approval of the Inter-local that will have DeMotte provide water and sewer to their I-65 interchange. The key bit for the Council was granting TIF revenues to help finance the $11.3 million dollar bond issue. The Town of DeMotte agrees not to annex the area for 25 years.

Someone mentioned that the housing market in northern Jasper County was incredible hot, with houses being sold within days of listing. The population of the jail remains below 60. The solar park at the jail is finished and should be hooked up by the end of the month; scheduling is causing the delay. The Council wanted it to be known that they did not cut the budget of Animal Control. Rather they insisted that Animal Control stay within its budget. That has resulted in reduced hours, which has upset some citizens. The December November meeting will be preceded by a joint meeting with the Commissioners.

The Court House is now open to the public but there are restrictions on how many people can be in an office at a time. If you need to visit an office, you are encouraged to make an appointment.

Here are a few more pictures from the Scarecrow trail. First is a large construction from Van Rensselaer School. 

Franciscan Health.

The radio station, the Q.

The law office of Lori James.