A final post for 2020

 In April I mentioned a ground-breaking ceremony in Pulaski County for a large greenhouse that will grow lettuce and herbs. Last week I was at West Central High School and took a picture of the facility. (It is just to the south and east of the school.) It does not seem to be in production yet. The website is here.

I learned why the disc golf course at Brookside Park has ten goals on a nine-hole course. One of them, the one on the south east corner of the running track, is a practice hole. It is common for disc golf courses to have a practice hole.

I was able to see the grand conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. They are so close together in the sky that the casual observer might think it was one star. Jupiter is much brighter than Saturn. I did try to take a picture, but the results were very poor. A better camera with a telephoto lens would have helped.

(Jupiter is the bright smudge. The faint smudge to its right is Saturn. Some better pictures here.)

The Commissioners met for the final time for 2020 on Monday morning. It was not a very exciting agenda. A woman who is working on a wind farm in an adjacent county wanted shape files. I do not know what  shape files are. Next was one of the strangest requests that the Commissioners have ever had. A young man wanted permission to film the elevator in the Court House. He makes elevator videos that he posts on Youtube. His cause is autism awareness. The Commissioners gave him permission. If you would like to see what kind of videos he does. his channel on Youtube is here.  (None of them have gone viral. Maybe Jasper County can be his first.)

The County Health Nurse asked for approval for two grant applications. (The Commissioners need to approve grant proposals so when the State audits them, there is a record in the minutes.) One was for Narcan and the other was a funding opportunity from the Indiana Department of Health. Both Rensselaer and Wheatfield police have used Narcan and the grant would not be for money but for the product. The funding opportunity was for $40,000 to help with vaccinations. The first shipments of the vaccine should arrive very soon. The Health Department has moved and is getting ready to open in the Sparling Annex (my name for the building). Newton County has hired a nurse and will be able to do their own vaccinations. (At a recent meeting the possibility was mentioned that Newton County children might be coming to Jasper County for vaccinations because their health nurse position was open.)

The solar park at the jail is finished but not yet connected to the City's grid. There will be another update on progress at the January 4th meeting. There is about $8,600 that the County has in Covid funding for educational purposes that has to be spent by Wednesday. The Commissioners approved spending it for digital signs at the fairgrounds and the northwest corner of the Court House lot, where it would replace the banners that announce events.  The Sheriff was given permission to replace a Court-House security person who took a job at the jail. The Commissioners approved a memo of understanding with Soil and Water that divides up who pays the employee of that department. They also approved an change in the health plan that would waive the waiting period for those going from part-time to full-time status. Work on an office for the Superior Court is finished and the Commissioners approved the completion document.

The Commissioners approved the 2021 calendar with 14 holidays for County employees and their meeting schedule for 2021. Meetings will be the first Monday of the month except for July 6, which is a Tuesday. There will be a second meeting on December 28 and the first meeting of 2022 will be January 3.

On Monday afternoon the Rensselaer City Council met via Zoom and the meeting was a lot more interesting than the agenda promised. They approved an increase in the electric tracker of $5.33 per megawatt. (The average household uses about 700 kilowatts per month, or .7 megawatts.) They then approved encumbering funds for several departments, which means that when the bills are paid for work that has been done, the charge will be to the 2020 budget, not to the 2021 budget. A proposal to upgrade the computer systems at the water plant was approved. The equipment was installed in 2012 when the plant was built and it is having some problems. The cost will be $11,821. The Council also approved fencing Well #7 (I believe this is the well on Sparling). IDEM strongly recommended the fencing. It will be a six foot fence topped with barbed wire and will cost $9,700. The Council then approved the last items on the agenda, the yearly nepotism forms.

The item I thought the most interesting of the afternoon was not on the agenda. The Filson family, which owns the empty lot where the buildings burned in 2019, offered to give that lot to the City with the provision that it be named "Filson Park" and that for the next fifteen years it be used as a park or used in connection with the operation of a park . The City attorney pointed out that if the City accepts the offer and wants to build anything on the land, it would need a variance from the Rensselaer Board of Zoning Appeals because the land is zoned for business. Noelle Weishaar had concerns that a park was not a good use for the land. She wanted an option to have a business put there if the opportunity arose. She voted "no" on accepting the land but four other Council members voted yes. So Rensselaer will soon have a Filson Park, at least for the next fifteen years.

New exercise equipment has been installed at Foundation Park. I am not sure what these are supposed to be.

In a couple of other news items, the new Dollar General store in Goodland is now open. I see Dollar General stores in just about every small town I drive through, so I wondered how many there are. The Internet says 17118 as of 12/21/2020. They are in 46 states. (Dollar Tree and Family Dollar (parts of the same company) operate another 15,000+ stores.) Years ago people in small towns bought what they needed at a general store and now we have returned to the time when people in small towns again buy what they need at a general store.

Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Remington had a fire on Monday. It was detected by the fire-alarm system and was not visible from the outside when the first fire trucks arrived. The suspicion is that it was an electrical fire and though it did considerable damage, if it had not been detected as early as it was, the whole building would have been lost.

Have a Merry Christmas

The 21st was the winter solstice. Days will no longer be getting shorter but will begin to lengthen, very slowly at first. In about a month you should be able to see that days really are a bit longer. Here is a site that gives you the sunrise and sunset for every day of the year.

I have not seen the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter yet. The clouds have not cooperated. I used to be much more interested in astronomical things.

JCEDO linked to a video about Indiana Face Masks, the new business in what was once Greene's furniture. You can see it here.

Desert Survivor has been entertaining her family with new games. She offers one of them here. It challenges players to invent new content for familiar acronyms.

There were two public Zoomed meetings on Monday. In the afternoon the Jasper County Redevelopment Commission held a public hearing about the establishment of a redevelopment area and TIF west of DeMotte. There were some questions about water. After closing the public hearing, they passed the confirmatory resolution, which establishes the TIF. The next step will come when DeMotte is ready to issue bonds for the water project. At that time the Redevelopment Commission will have to pledge TIF revenues to DeMotte so they can finance the bonds. The map below was taken from the document they approved and shows what properties are included in the TIF.

In the evening both the Jasper County Board of Zoning Appeals and the Plan Commission met on Zoom. The BZA heard a request for a variance for frontage. The code requires a 250 foot frontage for residences and the property in question had 350 feet. However, the owners wanted to split the lot and put two houses on it. The property is on SR 10 and there was concern that with the area now declared a TIF, it might not be appropriate for housing and that it would be on an increasingly busy road. However, the variance passed.

The Plan Commission had three cases, all similar in that they involved a change in zoning from A1 to A2. If a property is zoned A1, the property needs to be ten acres or larger to have a residence built on it. In all of these cases the owners wanted to put houses on much smaller lots. In the final case, the owner of a large lot in an existing subdivision wanted to split it into two parcels and to build on them he applied for a two-lot subdivision. All requests were approved. The rezones are advisory and must be approved by the Commissioners.

There is a lot of red tape involved in getting things done and listening to all the meetings I attend keeps confirming that.

This will probably be the last post before Christmas. Have a Merry Christmas. Below are trees from the Christmas Tree Walk. The first is from Little Cousin Jasper.

I could not figure who sponsored this second tree. Note that there was still some snow on the ground when I took the picture.

Not even on my bucket list

We have our first snow and now people have to remember how to drive on slippery roads. Local schools are on a two hour delay.

On Sunday at noon I passed through Brookside Park and again counted the disc golf goals that are south of the swimming pool. I counted five. A day or two earlier I had carefully counted the goals north of the pool and there were also five. I was confused about why a nine-hole course would have ten goals. I noticed someone at the far north of the park and thought it might be the person who designed the course and so I went over to ask him about the discrepancy. As I approached, he heaved a disc toward the goal that is near the parking lot and it went in. I was impressed but he was excited. It turned out that it was the first ace he had ever scored and he was happy to have had someone witness it. So congratulations Kenny Mitchell for your first ace in disc golf. May it be the first of many.

The course, as I mentioned, has ten goals. Mr Mitchell said that it might have a few more installed. There is room in the southeast section of the Park. This course could end up having the highest use-to-cost ratio of all the new things being added to the park. Even though the course is not finished—the tees or starting points have not been installed—people have begun playing the course. Disc golf is popular right now and the nearest public courses are in Lafayette to the south and I think Lowell to the north. The course will give people who come to ball tournaments next year something to do while they wait between games.

In Foundation Park new footings have been installed for more exercise equipment, though the one in the circle may be for a sign.

The exercise equipment is scheduled to be installed late this week or early next week.

I have been attending more meetings from the comfort of my home. On Thursday afternoon the Airport Authority Commission met for a routine meeting. There are no vacancies in the hangars and requests for short-term leases have had to be denied. Fuel sales are projected to be about 10% lower than last year, which was an exceptionally good year. The meeting reviewed quotes for removing trees between the property that the Airport recently purchased and the rest of the airport and accepted the low bid of $15,500. When this project is finished, the grass runway will be extended. There is a problem with a drainage tile. Hamstra thinks it fixed the roof leak in the maintenance building. The Airport will likely cancel Career Day in May because of uncertainty about the COVID situation. The Authority will move meeting time from 4:00 to 6:00 on the second Thursday for next year's meetings. There was a short discussion of various things that might be accomplished in 2021. The next meeting will be on December 30 at 4:00 to take care of anything that needs to be done before the end of the year.

The Rensselaer Board of Public Works met Monday afternoon. It approved the promotion of a police officer and the latest invoice from Commonwealth Engineering for design of extension of sewer lines and a new lift station. The design should be finished by the end of January. The Board also approved a change to the contract with Commonwealth. I did not understand exactly why the changes were needed, but they will cost more.

The Zoom session for the BPW did not get closed properly and that caused a delay in the start of the City Council meeting. (Apparently a host can have only one meeting open at a time.) The Mayor went right into the agenda and the Council approve some small transfers of funds. The gas tracker for December will be a 13.5¢ increase per hundred cubic feet. The Council approved a proposal to repave the parking lot at the recycling center. It does not have a good base so it will be a major redo, digging down and putting in a good base layer. The work will be done by Town and County in the Spring but will be paid from this year's budget, so the funds will have to be encumbered. 

The Council approved the sale of two dump trucks, a 1992 and a 1996 model, that are no longer being used. The buyer is St. Joe. The Council ratified a telephone poll that gave the Gas Department permission to apply for a lease for a truck that had come in. (I did not understand exactly what this entailed.) The Council also approved the preparation of a budget report that is needed to submit a grant to Rural Development. The report is done every year, but this year will be done earlier than usual. 

As the meeting ended, Mr Watson asked about what could be done with unused garbage stickers. He said someone with 40 stickers approached him with the question. The decision seems to be that they can be redeemed not for cash but for a reduction on upcoming utility bills. So do not throw them away in January.

The Council approved the minutes of the last meeting before it adjourned. The next meeting is December 28.

The Jasper County Council met Tuesday evening. The agenda said that it would have an in-person session at the Sparling Annex, but in-person part got canceled and it was Zoom only. One member of the Council was not informed of the change and showed up for the in-person session. He was able to join the Zoom session a few minutes before adjournment. 

The Council passed a salary ordinance that reflects the values approved at budget time. There is a change in position in Soil & Water and that will require an amendment and an additional appropriation in January. There were several small transfers approved. A meeting schedule was approved, with the meetings scheduled for the third Tuesday of the month, except for July, which will be the second Tuesday (if I heard it right). July and November will have joint Commissioners/Council meetings before the regular Council meetings. There are a number of positions on various boards that the Council appoints and the Council made those appointments. Almost all continued the current occupant. With the scheduled agenda out of the way, various people thanked Council members Gerrit DeVries, Andrew Andree, and Auditor Kim Grow for their service. They will not be attending meetings next year.

On Monday at 2:00 there will be a meeting of the Jasper County Redevelopment Commission to approve a TIF zone west of DeMotte. This document has a map of the proposed district.

The Coroner mentioned that the office has had a record number of cases this year, 80. The last item before adjournment was a brief discussion of a proposal by the Sheriff to have the School Resource Officer for Kankakee patrol nearby roads before and after school to curb speeding. The proposal would require overtime pay, which is why it comes to the Council. The Council decided they needed time to consider the idea and postponed a decision to January.

Here are a few more pictures of trees on the Christmas Tree walk. The first is from Franciscan Health.

The next is from the law office of Lori James.

I am not sure who put up this last one. It looks like it might be an elementary school.

Enjoy the snow and drive carefully.

From golf to geese

On Tuesday I passed through Brookside Park and noticed that the first goal of the planned nine-hole disc golf course had been installed.

There are about a dozen decorated trees on display in Potawatomie Park. The one from Renew Salon gets my vote for the funniest.

The BAE tree offers free bags of school supplies. There were more on the tree when I saw it a couple days ago.

 I attended Monday's Jasper County Commissioners meeting via Zoom. First on the agenda were three buried cable requests. One was for fiber optic in Kankakee Township, the second for a short extension of a manure pipeline in Barkley Township for Heartland Farm Services, and the third was from REMC. REMC has announced a big project of providing broadband services throughout their service area and will be doing a lot of boring under County roads and tiles. All were approved.

The County's Planning and Development Office has begun work on a new Comprehensive Plan for the County. It has worked with Purdue University gathering data and the result is an almost 100 page report. The next step is to hire a consultant to take the results of the report and put it into a plan format. The Commissioners approved seeking quotes from consultants and interviewing them.

The Commissioners approved the annual contracted services agreement with Purdue University that has the County paying $114,400 for part of the salaries for three educators working in the Extension office. The amount is unchanged from last year. It also approved some changes to the annex that are in response to Covid. The Plan Commission recommended a rezone from A1 to A4 for a property along SR114 east of town. The owner wants to put up a large farm service building that will also be used in his trucking business. (I missed the November Planning Commission meeting.)

The Commissioners rather quickly approved ambulance bids for the next year. Phoenix made the same bid as last year and the three township departments requested a 5% increase.

Work is almost finished on the remodel of the Sparling annex. One issue was resolved at the meeting. The Health Department has a large safe that needs to be moved and it is too heavy for the lift that the moving company has on its truck. The County Highway Department agreed to provide a fork lift to put the safe into the moving truck. Newton County has lost one of their health nurses so some Newton County children will be coming to Jasper County for vaccinations. The Health Department provides vaccinations for children with no or inadequate insurance. The Commissioners approved a resolution setting out how CARES Act funding would be done, something apparently needed to continue getting funds. Many County employees who were sent home when County offices were closed were paid even though they did not work. Employees of the Sheriff's Department and the Health Department continued to work. At a previous meeting the Sheriff argued that there was an inequity here and requested some hazard pay. At this meeting the Commissioners agreed to give $500 to full-time and $300 to part-time employees of those two department, realizing that this would probably not satisfy everyone.

The jail had a resignation and the Commissioners approved filling the position. The Sheriff received a grant of about $10,000 for equipment that would be used for crowd control, including helmets, face shields, and shields. The Commissioners approved the grant because they are supposed to approve all grants that the County receives. The Sheriff requested the purchase of highway sign boards and the Commissioner said that the purchase of them would be headed by the County Health nurse for use by both the Sheriff's Department and the Highway Department. They approved an FSSA Jail Inmate Medical Agreement that was similar to that approved last year. The solar panels are still not providing power to the jail. There is a hangup with the City, something about a transformer that needs to be replaced.

Some contractors are installing septic systems without getting the proper permits. The Commissioners approved an amendment to the ordinance that specifies fines for noncompliance.

The County is in the process of establishing a TIF district south and west of DeMotte in the area of the SR 10/I-65 interchange. The first step was taken by the Redevelopment Commission in November. Then the Plan Commission approved the establishment of the district. The Commissioners approved the plan at this meeting. The final step in establishing the district will be approval of the establishment by the Redevelopment Commission when it meets on December 21.

The Highway Department is getting ready to submit another CCMG grant proposal for road work. It asked the Commissioners to send them a list of their priorities. They want a list of $1.5 million in work to submit with the grant proposal.

The Commissioners then reviewed a number of contracts. Republic Services provides a dumpster at the Court House, but the Commissioners decided they wanted more information before they approved a renewal of the contract. It approved renewal of insurance for cybersecurity coverage and also for getting annual printed updates to the County Code. It approved about $20,000 for furniture for the Health Department that should be covered by CARES Act funding. It approved an agreement with a company that provides aerial photography used by the Assessor's office. The company makes two passes every six years and the new contract will cost more but will provide photos with higher contrast. The Coroner was given permission to replace a refrigerator in the morgue. It approved a quote from replacing the fire alarm system at Community Corrections and also a quote from NITCO to provide internet service to the Sparling annex.  Some of the audio visual equipment planned for the conference room at the Sparling annex has been installed and perhaps the next meeting will be zoomed with new cameras rather than a laptop.

The second December meeting, which is usually short, will be on December 28 at 8:15. This meeting takes care of any items that need to be finished before the end of the year.

The Drainage Board met in the afternoon. When I joined via Zoom a couple minutes after 1:00 the meeting had started a public hearing about cleaning or rebuilding a tile. There will be 12 landowners affected and they were split on whether they wanted the work done. Some said that their land was currently not useable because of the water and others did not like the expense. The Board approved the project, noting that it would increase land values. 

The other item of some interest was approval of work that will extend DeMotte utilities to the Interstate. The water mains and sewer pipes will have to cross County drains and tiles, so Drainage Board approval is needed. It was granted.

The new local business, Indiana Face Masks, which is located in the former Greene Furniture building,  has received federal approval for N95 mask production. The story is here.

I noticed that many of our Canadian geese have not migrated south. On Tuesday there were several hundred north of the ConAgra plant.

Updates: Jasper County is now coded red for Covid. That means there are more restrictions on place.

INDOT released the Community Crossings grant recipients for the second round of 2020.  Rensselaer was on the list for the amount of $739,599.23.

It's beginning to look a bit like Christmas

Christmas is less than three weeks away. The weather is typical December weather, which means it is cold. Christmas decorations are popping up. There is a lighted "Seasons Greetings" sign in Milroy Park. 

On Friday more trees were being added to the Christmas tree walk in Potawatomie Park. Santa will be visiting the Santa House this year on Saturdays from 11:00 until 1:00. 

I am not sure what the cat was doing in the park.

Brown's Garden Shop always has something interesting and decorative.

Saint Augustine's has its nativity scene ready.

Fendig Summer Theater announced last week that it now owns the former Episcopal Church on the corner of Grace and Melville. The property was transferred at the end of July. 

The Summer Theater also owns a property on Rachel Street south of Columbia Park that it purchased in November of 2019. The lot had been zoned residential and the Theater asked the Rensselaer BZA for a variance so it could be used for other purposes. The plan was to use the existing building for storage and perhaps later build something for offices and practice space. I wonder if the Theater will now sell this lot or if they still have a use for it.

This past week the City has been patching streets where utility and other work has cut into the streets. One of the big patches was on Vine Street over the culvert.

At the west end of Vine the Fire Department is building a training facility. One of their training structures looks mostly completed. Since the last time I was there a fence and a new sidewalk along Monroe Street have been added.

Another of the props on the site is a replica of a car.

I noticed that the retention pond behind the fire station has a coating of ice. 

The City is no longer using the lot north of the railroad on Mattheson for its brush pile. The brush is now going south to somewhere near the sewage plant.

On Monday Rensselaer Central High School will be going to on-line learning for the rest of the semester. They have many students quarantined because they have been in close contact with someone who tested positive.

On Friday morning the Jasper County Tourism Commission met via Zoom. Revenues from the inn keepers tax continue to track below the revenues from 2019. One member said that the monthly numbers are not accurate because some payers have been paying late. As a result the numbers do not tell how COVID is affecting revenues month to month. Mr Patel said to expect a brutal December, January, and February with regards to the tax. He did say that he has had inquiries from sports teams about reserving blocks of rooms for the tournaments that the Blacker Fields will be hosting.

There was mention of an ongoing website update. A few months ago the Tourism Commission approved a study examining possibilities for more sports tourism. The group doing the study said that the SJC campus offered the greatest possibilities but that they had not been able to do a site visit, in part because travel from Illinois to Indiana is banned. Phase One of the study will soon be completed and then the Tourism Commission will have to decide if it wants to continue on with a Phase Two. 

Cameron Moberg will be doing the DeMotte mural in May or June. There was mention of a sculpture but I did not catch what that was about. The Jasper-Pulaski Reserve is undergoing leadership changes and the Tourism Commission would like to work with the leadership to find ways to promote more tourism. The 2021 budget for the Commission will be lower by $12,000 due to reduced revenues from the inn keepers tax. Finally, the Commission heard a report on the Memories Alive Cemetery Walk. Their main interest was in how the event can get more people from out of town to attend the event.

Odds and ends to start December

Christmas decorations are going up downtown. Lights were strung across the street last week. 

On Tuesday City workers were putting up the old wreaths with three candles.

Also going up were the new set of decorations, lighted snowflakes.

The Christmas tree walk in Potawatomie Park has a couple of early displays. It is scheduled to run from December 5 until January 2.

Speaking of displays, I ventured into Illinois for Thanksgiving and coming home I was surprised to see hundreds and perhaps thousands of American flags lining the highway from  Crescent City to Watseta. They were on both sides of the highway and spaced about 100 yards apart. Once in Watseka the spacing was much closer.

They were to honor Sgt. Jeremy C. Sherman who was killed in a helicopter crash in Egypt.

The motel we stayed at in Illinois was almost empty. There may have been only one other guest. Other motels looked like they were busier.

Back in Rensselaer, the car wash north of Strack & Van Til reopened a couple weeks ago. It has new car-washing equipment.

On Tuesday City workers were preparing sections of streets for asphalt patches. The picture below shows Vine Street where the street was cut to replace a culvert.
While in Potawatomie Park, I noticed a couple of paintings that I had not seen before. I think they are quite recent.

They are south of the river.

I graphed the number of posts that I have done each year since 2008. (You can see the numbers in the sidebar.) There is a clear downward trend. If it continues, this blog has about four years of life left.