Viewing the fire damage at Sacred Heart Church in Remington

 On December 28, 2020 a fire damaged Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Remington. The church had an alarm that notified the fire department while the fire was still small and, as a result, the Reminton Fire Department was able to put out the fire before it totally destroyed the building. Nevertheless, there was a lot of damage and there are no church services being offered at the building. The parishioners can go to Goodland for Sunday Mass.

On Sunday, April 18, the public was allowed into the basement of the building to see its current state. Part of the ceiling of the basement, or alternatively, part of the floor of the church's nave, have been removed so that one could look up into the church.

The fire started on the south side of the church beneath the floor, and the part of the floor that has been removed is the section where the fire started. You can see that a lot of plaster has been removed, both in the basement and in the nave. Fortunately, it does not appear that the stained glass windows were damaged. The walls appear to have been stained by the smoke.

Below is the view of the choir loft from the basement.

Below is a view that shows that plaster was removed from the length of the south wall. It is still not clear how much more plaster will have to be removed.

Below is the edge of the the floor that remains. The wood was singed but appears to be structually sound.

I had never been in the basement but was told that it had been chopped up into small rooms. It appears that the small rooms are being rebuilt.

The picture below shows the inside of a basement door. You can see how the heat of the fire blistered the paint.

For pictures of the church before the fire, see here and here.

The Blacker Fields hosted its second tournament this weekend. I noticed that teams playing in the northwest field seemed much smaller than the teams playing in Roth Field, so I searched to see if I could find a list of teams participating. I found it on the website of the organization that organizes the tournaments. There were three different age groups, 13 and under, 12 and under, and 11 and under. Teams in the 13u group were from Valapraiso, Crown Point, Kouts, Chesterton, and two from Lafayette. The 12u group had teams from Kouts, Porter, Frankfort, Bourbonnais, IL, Greenfield, and South Bend. The 11u had teams from Valpariso, Indianapolis, and two from Crown Point.

The fans had really good weather, unlike last weekend. Concessions were being sold by Team Mission Jasper County. While I was there, I saw someone hit a home run.  Also, I wonder if part of the parking problem is due to the lack of asphalt and thus painted lines showing where people should park.

The forecast says we will have a cold start to the week with frost on Tuesday and Wednesday. I hope it does not damage the fruit crop again this year.

The Rensselaer Board of Zoning Appeals met Tueday evening to consider a conditional use application (which is what the County BZA calls a special exception) for an event barn on CR 1000 W across from Wilson's Fertilizer. That is not in City limits, but it is within the two-mile buffer zone. The barn is 85% complete and is 40 feet by 60 feet. It has a kitchen and bathrooms and is designed to host events of up to 100-125 people. It will have parking for 60-70 cars. The application was approved.

How long has Moonshiners been closed? 

A food truck plans to visit Rensselaer every Friday. It will set up in the parking lot of the bowling alley. Its Facebook page is here. 

Pizza Hut is getting a new roof.

A small building that was once part of the VanTobel lumber yard has been removed and the view of the rest of the building is now completely different.