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.
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.
2 comments:
Your photo of the Canadian Geese in the Conagra lot brings back memories of when the land on either side of Drexel Hall was fenced in and St. Joe had turkeys roaming the fields, feasting on the corn that missed being picked. Little did they know that they would become holiday meals for the priests and students on campus. This was back when I attended SJC 65-69.
St. Joe was a place of really caring people. Instead of turkeys being provided for students and staff -- now the place is being run by a bunch of "jive Turkey's"
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