Another zoomed meeting

I passed through Monon on late on Monday afternoon and took a couple of pictures of their new downtown mural.

Sorry for the poor quality. I took them from the car. 

There is not a lot happening. The leaves are down and almost all of them have been picked up by the street crews. An interesting news item I noticed is that a company called Cleveland-Cliffs is buying most of the steel-making operations of ArcelorMittal, which include several big plants in Gary, for $1.4 billion. That seems to be a ridiculously low amount for such a huge operation.

The City Council met on Monday at 4:00 in a Zoom-only meeting. It passed an amendment to an ordinance that extends the shutdown of City Hall to December 4. It authorized borrowing of $100,000 from gas department cash reserves to fund the new sanitation department until its fees allow it to fund itself. The borrowing is to be paid back by the end of 2021. The sticker program ends this year but the new monthly fees for trash pickup will not be immediately available to pay bills. A bit later in the meeting the Council established the new sanitation department. It has until now operated by paying expenses from City's general fund.

The Council approved a couple of transfers of funds, one for repairs on the aerial truck (which is now working correctly) and the other for engineering work for a Community Crossing grant for street work. The Council approved bids for 2021 supplies of gas, diesel, and tires. It was an easy decision because each item had only one bidder.

The Mayor announced that he has tested positive for COVID and is in quarantine. He has no symptoms. The City Project Manager and Gas Department Superintendent are in quarantine as they wait for test results. The City Building Commissioner is in quarantine because his wife tested positive.

Although the old aerial truck is again working, the City has signed contracts to purchase a new truck that should go into production in late February or early March. Apparently each truck is a special order.

Have a nice Thanksgiving.

An interesting news day (from 1896)

Before the main topic of this post, a couple updates. I forgot to mention in the last post that the members of the County Council had kind words to say about Ronald Spikema, who died Monday. He had served 11 years on the County Council and had been president. Two current members of the Council served with him.

The Wreathes Across American event, which is locally sponsored by the General Van Rensselaer Chapter of the DAR, has raised enough money to honor all the veterans in the cemeteries in Barkley Township. They will start in Smith Cemetery at 10:00 on December 19 and from there travel to the other cemeteries. All are welcome to attend.

The domes are back at Embers.

An entrance gateway is under construction for the Blacker Fields.

 I have been searching old microfilm, doing preliminary research for next year's cemetery walk. Along the way I sometimes find interesting items that are unrelated to what I am looking for, which is usually obituaries or reports of death. The Rensselaer Republican issue of July 16, 1896 was especially interesting. The Court House had its last meeting and was being torn down. Attached to the reports on that were a report of a historic wedding and a robbery.

I did not copy the bottom of the page but it did not seem worthwhile to go back and find it.

I had not realized that the Makeever House had contributed to the racial diversity of Rensselaer. I found mention of one other non-white employee but did not copy that page.

Finally, there was a report of a fire at the Sparling residence. The Sparlings were among the very earliest settlers of Rensselaer and are an interesting family. The house became what was known as the White House at Saint Joes. It was located just to the south of the former Youth Center. (That building needs a new name.)

I did find one small obituary on the page, though not one I was looking for.

Out of curiosity, I checked the 1900 census to see how many black people were in Rensselaer. I found four. On page 2 of the 46 pages was Charles McDonald, 32 years old, a servant in the household of Thomas McCoy. In 1904 McCoy would be in the news when his bank failed and wiped out his considerable fortune. As a result of the bank failure, McCoy Avenue was renamed Milroy Avenue

Page 15 listed Mary Pinkerton, 24, as a servant in the household of Elizabeth Guss. Vintage Views had an article about her and it said that Mary was raised by Elizabeth, so I am not sure why she was listed as a servant. Mary is buried in Weston Cemetery.

There are two black servants listed on page 23. In the household of Delos Thompson is 24 year old William Corter. Delos was a banker and built the large gothic mansion on north Front Street. Next door across the driveway lived James Ellis, who served as a mayor of Rensselaer (as did Thomas McCoy) and ran the opera house. In his household was 28-year-old Julius Taylor. Julius was a long-time resident of Rensselaer working as a carpenter and is buried in Weston Cemetery along with his wife.

Mention of Ellis reminds me that I never gave an answer to the trivia question I posed a few posts ago. It was Grover Mackey who carved the names in the base of the Milroy statue. You can read more about him here. James Ellis Jr writes about him in his book, The Jumping Frog from Jasper County: Hoosier Boy Lands on Madison Avenue.

One final note about Weston Cemetery. There are many veterans of the Civil War buried there, including several who were killed in the War. Two of the veterans fought on the side of the South: Morris Gosnell and William Scearcy.

Mostly meetings

 We have another windy day, but at least it is sunny and warmer.

There is demolition being done inside the old carriage house behind Fenwick Farms. I hope this is preliminary to a reconstruction.

The foundations for new basketball hoops in Brookside Park are in place.

On Tuesday evening the County Commissioners and County Council had a joint meeting. I decided to attend via Zoom. When the County meeting first started meeting in person, the Zoom link was awful. Things have greatly improved. There is one source of sound and there were two sources of video on Tuesday. It would be nice if a few of the Council members attending in person also had video to give a better sense of what is happening. Below is what the room looked like for Zoomers.

Kendell Culp started the meeting by reporting on a number of developments. He mentioned that the planned solar farm in Kankakee Township will have two phases and be an investment of about one billion dollars. Phase One should be operational in 2022 and Phase Two in 2023. Some of Phase Two will spill over into Starke County. The output of both phases together will be 700 megawatts, with 75 megawatts of battery storage. It will be the largest solar farm east of the Mississippi River when completed.

The solar farm at the jail is still not connected to the grid. 

A lot of work was done on County roads this year. Much of the $3.9 million that the County spent went to Walsh and Kelly, which did roads in subdivisions. There were 32 miles of new asphalt. 2021 will see less road work because funding from the State will be less. 

The Health Department plans to move the the former Youth Center on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Christmas. The renovations cost about $150,000 and should be covered by the CARES Act. Work will begin the week after Thanksgiving to add audio-visual technology to the meeting room at the Youth Center.  Also, work has begun at the Court House to expand the space for the clerks of Judge Bailey by combining the existing room with a small storage room.

The County is eligible for $1,080,000 in CARES Act funding and has submitted invoices for that amount. However, payment from the State has been very slow, with a mere $25,000 coming back so far.  Among the items purchased are laptops so County employees can work from home. They will replace their desktops, though they will keep the monitors and keyboards. The Health Department has purchased a pickup truck that the Highway Department will also be able to use to plow snow. Money from the 911 account that was used by the Sheriff's Department to purchase Spillman software will be reimbursed. Also, the County has purchased four ultraviolet disinfecting machines, two for the Sheriff's Department, one for the Court House, and one other.

There was a brief discussion of the inter-local agreement that will result in DeMotte extending sewer and water to the Interstate. The negotiations were long but the parties persisted because they recognized that developing the areas around the Interstate interchanges is important. DeMotte and NORWEJ are incurring a lot of financial risk. Loves Travel Center wants to build a septic field and received Drainage Board approval (because the line will cross a County drain) even though they will connect to the new sewer. The two rest areas will be served by the new water and sewer. However, the new Compass Travel Center on the west side of the interchange will not be using the new water and sewer lines. They will be served by a different utility. Their property will be included in the TIF district, so the taxes they pay will help finance the bonds needed for the project. 

The Sheriff answered questions. He was asked about providing security for meetings in the former Youth Center and said he would provide them as needed. The jail has seen a reduction in utility bills as a result of the work Trane did and the building is more comfortable. He said he was happy with the service Trane has been providing.

There were questions about another solar farm possibility, perhaps in the Neiman area, but there has been no permitting so the future of that project is unclear. There was also concern about the traffic at the SR 10/I-65 interchange. 

The joint meeting ended a bit before 7:00 and after a few minutes the County Council meeting began. The agenda was short, but the meeting lasted almost an hour.

The County Clerk had requests for two additional appropriations, one of which she said it turned out she did not need. She said there were a record number of voters in the 2020 election. The auditor also had requests for additional appropriations that are needed to move money around for items funded by CARES Act funding. Extension asked for a transfer of funds. It also noted that the Health and Human Services position has finally been filled. Finally, the Council approved a transfer of funds for the Prosecutor's office.

The Council President read a letter from Wreaths Across America. Locally the group will be placing wreaths on the graves of the 40 veterans buried in Smith Cemetery on December 19. 

The Sheriff wants the Council to think about using the School Resource Officers to patrol an hour before and after the start of school to reduce speeding. The proposal would increase overtime pay. Twenty eight employees of the Department have had to quarantine, though not all tested positive. Some were in contact with family members who did test positive. He noted that this has created staffing problems. The Department received a grant from the Energy Department that will help buy some hybrid vehicles. They should cost less to operate because they get better gas mileage. He noted that a deputy and a citizen rescued a man in the Bailey's Corner area from a burning trailer. The jail inspection report was positive and he was happy with the result.

The meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm.

The Jasper County Economic Development Organization and the Jasper-Newton Foundation have been doing podcasts. You can find links to them here: https://rootsandgraffiti.buzzsprout.com/

The trees are bare

The trees are bare. Whatever leaves they had last week were blown down by the strong winds over the weekend.

The Airport Authority Board met on Thursday afternoon. I attended via a link with Free Conference Call (a meeting that did not use Zoom!) and for a while I think I was the only person on-line. The items discussed were mostly day-to-day problems.

There are no vacancies in the hangars. There is a prospect of building a new hangar next year, and if it happens, it will be mostly financed with federal dollars. Fuel sales are mediocre. There was a discussion of how to clear trees from the north part of the Phegley lot that the Airport recently purchased. Later there was a discussion of how that lot is taxed. The part that was financed with federal dollars should be tax free but the southern part is taxable, at least for now. The Board approved a motion to split the lot into the taxable and not-taxable parts for clarity.

There were various maintenance issues discussed. The Airport hired a consultant to prepare a master plan and from my understanding of the discussion, the Airport is not happy with the product that has been produced. It seemed to be based on previous plans for larger airports. There was also discussion of on-going efforts to get aviation-related classes at area high schools and Ivy Tech.

On Friday morning JECDO hosted another roundtable on Zoom. It attracted 19 people at its peak. The focus of the meeting was COVID, with special guests Kendell Culp and Carlos Vasquez. 

Jasper County has had 1060 positive tests and seven COVID-related deaths. The virus has gotten into the Care Center, affecting both residents and staff. County offices are open, but by appointment only. With CARES Act funding the County purchased 50 laptops to allow employees to work at home and they will become their main computer when they return to the office as the desktops are retired.

The Hospital still requires a doctor's permission for a COVID test, but CVS does not. The Hospital is working to get a testing site at the Kankakee Township Fire Station. COVID has also invaded the George Ade facility in Newton County. The Hospital had 16 resident patients, with five in isolation, but it was not clear how many were COVID positive. The problem the Hospital has is not rooms but staff. If a staff member tests positive, he or she must isolate. Also, when schools or day-cares close, some staff will stay home to care for children. Jasper County is close to being declared red, and if so, the Hospital will be closed to visitors and elective surgery. 

Dr Steven Vuckovic from the Hospital said that they are seeing increased numbers of COVID cases and that it takes time to confirm the disease. Most cases they have seen are mild or moderate. Sister hospitals are near or at capacity, so it can be a challenge to find a place for a COVID patient. The Hospital encourages people who have recovered from COVID to donate plasma.

Mr Vasquez said that the hospital had its first plasma transfusion last week. He expect a busy end of the year because people who have unused benefits will use them for elective procedures. The hospital has four ventilators but none is in use.

It was then time for the roundtable in which people on Zoom were asked for their input. Curtis Craig from Rensselaer Central Schools said that the schools have had 23 positive cases so far this year but no new cases in the last week. Staffing is their big concern. 

The Library remains open but with limitations. The Jasper County Historical meeting for November has been canceled. State Senator Ed Charbonneau noted that the 2021 legislative session will start Tuesday. It will be strange because of distancing. Hearings will have witnesses appear on-line. The House will meet in the government center to allow greater distancing. There will be a December round table meeting.

The Saint Augustine Bazaar took place on Thursday. The meal was served by drive-thru and almost 800 meals were served. The line had to shut down early because it ran out of turkey. The traditional big wheel raffle, where one buys a chance to win a prize, was done on-line this year using poker chips drawn from a can. People had to pre-buy their chances in blocks of 25. There was also a silent auction done on-line and it may have been the most successful silent auction that the Bazaar has had.

Saint Luke Lutheran Church had its annual Turkey Dinner scheduled for the 21st. It decided to cancel.

Update and correction: The hangar project, if it goes through, will be financed from the Airport budget, not FAA funding. The master plan is still in very early stages, with the issue currently being worked on is the scope of the plan. The entire plan will take about two years. As I hinted above, I do not understand the master plan, the what and why of it. 

Another history post: Oil

Ten years ago I wrote a post about the discovery of oil in Jasper County. (See here.) Recently I found a detailed newspaper report on the Jasper County oil field.

The oil was near the surface and in couple of years all that was economic to pump had been pumped. No one alive today remembers the oil boom.

Also from 1901, there were high expectations about the future of McCoysburg.

McCoysburg depended on the railroad. The rise of the automobile spelled its doom.

One more item that I found interesting, a report of a bike trip from Helena, Montana to Chicago in 1891.

There were no paved roads in 1891. In fact, bike riders were a early force for improving roads. I searched the Internet for how long it would take to bicycle from Helena to Chicago and Google maps said 121 hours for 1497 miles and even mapped a route.  That is an average speed just under 12 miles per hour, which is riding a lot faster than I normally ride. 

Jasper County Historical Society is selling DVDs of September's Cemetery Walk.  Its museum is open the first and third Saturdays of the month, from 10:00 until 1:00.

Veterans Day

 The weather turned cool for Veterans Day but it did not affect the annual ceremony at Weston Cemetery.

The  middle school choir sang a couple of songs and veteran Dan Lewandowski gave a short speech honoring the sacrifices of veterans. 

In downtown news, the old Charlie Roberts building is getting a major renovation.

The exterior of the Fenwick Farms Brew House is finished and work is continuing inside.

On Monday evening the Rensselaer Board of Public Works had an item on its agenda, "Request for Qualification recommendation (Water, Tower/Generator)". The Board approved having Commonwealth Engineers start preliminary planning for a back-up generator for the water treatment plant by Iroquois Park and also for a water tower near the Interstate.

In the Council meeting that followed, the Council approved an ordinance involving the CARES Act. The City is asking for reimbursement for public safety wages and for some reason that needed City Council approval before being submitted.

The gas tracker for November will be a 9.5¢ decrease per hundred cubic feet. The Mayor than handed out a couple of ten-year awards to members of the Police Department and gave jackets to four people who had served the City for 40 years.

Supply bids were opened, one for gasoline, one for diesel, and one for tire repair. Ceres Solutions was the only bidder on the first two and Wonderland Tire the only bidder on the third. 

The software and equipment that the City uses for reading utility meters will no longer be supported after the end 2021. The Council approved $24,365 to upgrade and the cost will be split among the four utilities. 

The American Legion Thanksgiving Dinner will not be held this year. The City had contributed $250 for the event but will not ask for a refund. Instead it will ask the Legion to apply the amount to next year's event. The same solution is being used for Oktoberfest. The City will not reclaim the money it gave this year but will not give funds next year. 

The Mayor had polled three Council members last week on a proposal to help fund new Christmas lights. They had approved about $5000 from the public relations fund. This will be added to $7000 that the Tourism Commission approved and $2500 from Rensselaer Main Street. The total cost will be $15336.25. 

Before adjournment, Council members thanked the Street Department for their work in picking up leaves this fall.

Here is a bit a Rensselaer trivia that I stumbled on last week. Who carved the names of the Civil War soldiers on the base of the Milroy statue? (Answer here.)

Odds and ends, November 2020

 On Friday morning at ten o'clock there were two public meetings, a Tourism Commission meeting that was solely zoomed and a Jasper County Redevelopment Commission meeting that had both a physical and a zoom audience. I decided to try to attend both using my computer and an iPhone that does not have a sim card. 

The start of the Redevelopment Commission was delayed as the meeting waited for a quorum. It has five members and needed three, which it got about ten minutes after the hour. So the Tourism meeting started first. It had two requests, one from DeMotte to help fund murals. That request for $20,000 was approved even though the plans are not close to being finalized. Tourism has the money in this year's budget and requests have been light this year. It is possible that something may get started in April or May. The other request was from Rensselaer Main Street for Christmas lights. Unfortunately I lost the feed as the discussion of this request started, so I am not sure what was requested or approved. Later there was an update on the Blacker Fields and I lost the feed again for most of that discussion.

Speaking of the Blacker Fields, a new trail-head structure was installed last week. Also the bathroom has been a new exterior.

New lights were installed last week along the trail that connects the Roth Field stands with the Blacker Fields. 

The purpose of the Redevelopment Commission was to approve a declaratory resolution to set up a TIF district in the area that will be served by the extension of DeMotte sewer and water to I-65. This resolution is a first step and is required in the process of setting up the TIF district. As I understand it, it included an explanation of why the TIF district is needed but does not actually set up the district. The motion passed with four members voting for it. (Four eventually showed up in person, on speaker phone, or on Zoom.)

Last week I got a call from the State doing contact tracing for COVID. The call lasted about 45 minutes. I hope that the information that they are collecting is showing that for the vast majority of people who test positive, the disease is no big deal. It certainly was not for me. I have had colds that were more serious.

The business that will move into the Charlie Roberts' building will be doing auto repair. 

I noticed a lot of equipment outside the bowling alley over the weekend. I do not know what the story is here.

The work on the windows for the Carnegie Center seems to be finished. The project restored the windows to what they were like when the building was constructed.

Many of the scarecrows on scarecrow trail have been removed. Over the weekend I finally got a picture of the Van Rensselaer School entry with good light. (Light is everything when trying to get good pictures.)

Rensselaer 1899

I found this on the Hoosier State Chronicles. It is a look at Rensselaer by a reporter in 1899, with special attention to the Court House and the Gifford farms.

A bug to start November

 I found this impressive insect on my window last week. I wonder how many other insects she had to eat to reach that size.

The Commissioners met Monday for their annual November meeting. After approving a couple of buried cable permits, they approved spending about $19,000  to install audio-visual equipment in the meeting room, pending Council approval. They learned that they will not be able to use CARES Act funding for this because that funding is no longer being allowed for IT equipment.

Next they opened a public hearing for a 35 mph speed limit on a section of 1100 North in Keener Township. No one on either Zoom or in person had a comment, and the commissioners approved the new speed limit. 

Community Corrections wants a barrier to separate the building from the parking lot. They can have two free 2'x2'x6' stone or concrete barriers but they need to be picked up in Winamac. The County Highway Department said that they could do that. The  Commissioners approved spending a bit less than $8000 for a new fire alarm system for Community Corrections.

The County continues to see many positive COVID cases, 80 in the last four days. The CARES Act now wants counties to use their funding on payroll as a priority. Jasper County has submitted enough items to bring the County's balance down to zero once they are all approved. 

Animal Control was given permission to replace one of two part-time vacancies. They were also given an OK to a transfer of a K-9 unit from the Sheriff's Department. One of the vacancies on the Animal Control Board was filled. The director of Animal Control asked about the possibility of moving the Animal Shelter to the former youth center on Sparling; Mr Culp said that he did not think it would make a good neighbor for the Health Department.

Work on defining a TIF district for the expansion of the DeMotte sewer and water has started and I think I heard that there will be a Redevelopment Commission meeting on Friday. The source of the leak at the Court House has been identified as a back-up from a downspout onto a flat roof section.

The Sheriff's Department has a full-time dispatcher who wants to move to part-time. The Commissioners approved replacing the full-time position. The solar panels have not yet been connected to the grid but may be this week.

There was a long discussion on how much to compensate for work-time missed due to COVID. The Commissioners decided limit the compensation to 160 hours. The Prosecutor was given permission to replace a position. The meeting was continued until the 16th if necessary.

I attended the meeting via Zoom and was surprised to see between 20 and 25 other on Zoom during the meeting.

I wanted to Zoom the Drainage Board meeting because the first item on the agenda was "Love’s Travel Plaza Wastewater DeMotte – Drainage Plan". However, I was given the Zoom link for the December meeting, not the November meeting. I also wanted to attended the Rensselaer Park Board meeting on Monday evening because it was being held in the new press box at the Blacker Fields. However, last week I found that I had lost my sense of smell so I arranged a COVID test with CVS. It came back positive. Other than losing my sense of smell (which has come back a little) and being tired, I had no symptoms. No fever, no congestion, no trouble breathing. 

Below are a couple pictures from last week showing the work on the basketball court at Brookside Park.

It has been raining leaves for the past few days. The leaf vacuum has been busy sucking up leaves. 

County election results are here.