First big snow of the winter

 We finally got a big snow this winter, one that had people using their snowblowers to clear their sidewalks and driveways. The temperature was near the freezing point and the snow was sticky, so there are lots of snowmen around town. The timing of the snow, on Saturday night and all day Sunday, meant that it did not interfere with school or many people commuting to work. However, area schools went to e-learning on Monday. Most City streets were cleared and because the temperature was near freezing and because Monday had some sun, most streets were dry by Monday afternoon. 

This is a comment left on the previous post:

Something to maybe check in to is the Baymont Inn out by 114 & 65 has been sold and will be a Quality Inn. Doing some huge renovation. Like over $1 million from what a guy there told me this afternoon.

I checked the County's GIS site and it revealed that the property had changed ownership on December 2. I tried to check the hotel prices on the Internet and was told that nothing was available, so it seems to be closed. 

Nick Fiala, who was a reporter for the Rensselaer Republican until he was downsized, is now working for the Indiana Attorney General as an outreach representative.

The County Commissioners met on February 1 for their monthly meeting. They approved a couple of buried cable permits. One of them, the Phase 2 of REMCs Fiber Optic project, was also on the agenda of the Drainage Board in the afternoon. At that meeting there were questions about how far it would be away from ditches when it ran along them and the project will be back before the Drainage Board in March. 

The Commissioners approved the annual contract with Porter County for housing juveniles. This year the County contracted for only one daily bed rather than two because it has over 300 bed-days left from the previous contract. The Commissioners also approved proceeding with the preparation of a Comprehensive Plan for the County. This is a project of the Planning and Development Office. The Office received a quote of $38,000 to prepare the plan from a firm in Indianapolis.

The Sheriff received permission to replace three employees, one a part-time dispatcher and two full-time correction officers. He reported that the solar field is up and running. The connection took place on the 27th. The power to the jail had to be turned off to make the connection and the jail did several other maintenance tasks while the power was off. Trane would like to have a ribbon cutting for the solar panels but no date has yet been set. The Sheriff reported that other than responding to slide-offs, the winter storm did not cause any unusual problems for his department. He did mention that there had been car thefts from the Dodge dealership in DeMotte and the thefts had resulted in a car chase.

The Health Department has done about 1000 vaccinations for the Covid virus and is expecting 700 vaccines per week through the end of March. Vaccinations are now available those 65 and older and appointments can be scheduled at ourshot.in.gov. (That link takes you to https://www.coronavirus.in.gov/vaccine/.)

The Commissioners then dealt with the miscellaneous stuff that pops up every month. They approved an agreement with a company called Spyglass that looks for ways that the County can save money. The company does not charge an upfront fee for their service but instead gets a percentage of any savings that they identify (for one year only). The Commissioners approved some increased fees for the County Highway Department. The fees will not be effective until after an ordinance with the fees is approved in the March meeting. They made an appointment to the Animal Control Board. It appears that the County may go into orange status from red and that will allow County meetings to be in person (though the Zoom option will remain). The Redevelopment Commission meets on Tuesday to pledge TIF moneys to DeMotte and NORWEJ to fund the bonds that they will be issuing, perhaps by the end of the month. In March there will be discussion of an exemption to encourage the building of a super-fast Internet infrastructure. The meeting was continued until the 16th if necessary.

The Drainage Board met in the afternoon. In addition to discussing the REMC optic-fiber project, they examined a proposal for a methane pipeline. This project had been approved in September of 2019 and then again in April of 2020. It needed the second approval because the company building the pipeline changed. This third round was necessary because the new company building it decided to change the route. There were questions about where they had to bore and where they could cut. Cutting a gravel road has a fee of $1000 and cutting a paved road has a fee of $2000. Since I had heard nothing about this project since April, I wondered if it had died and was happy to hear that it is still being considered.

The Rensselaer Park Board canceled its meeting for Monday evening.