Changing businesses and three meetings

Another new business has opened in Rensselaer, Rule Auto Care. It is located in what was previously Charlie Robert's Auto Sales. I really like their logo.

They have a nice reception area/waiting room and the service desk is behind a garage door that was an exterior door when the Robert's family owned the building.

There will be a grand opening or ribbon cutting in the future. The Rules wanted to have a quiet opening but so far have been very busy. 

The front part of the building that was the old show room is available for rent as is space in the two-story building behind the new garage. The large warehouse building on Weston Street was sold at the beginning of the month. Rule Auto Care is open Monday through Friday from 8 to 5.

Below is a picture of the start of construction for an expansion to Pipestone Veterinary Services on the corner of US 231 and Wood Road.

Alliance Bank has completely remodeled their lobby. The teller area has been rotated 90 degrees.

Walmart continues their remodeling. The main restrooms are under construction so there are temporary restrooms on the north side of the building.

The river has risen but as I write this it is still a few inches below flood stage. Pehaps more rain in the next few days will push it over flood stage (12 feet). The daily flow is much less than what it was in June of 2015 when we had a major flood, with the river getting to a bit over 16 feet.

There were three meetings on Monday evening, the Rensselaer City Council met at 6:00 and the Jasper County BZA met at 7:00, followed by the meeting of the Jasper County Plan Commission. The City Council meeting had a light agenda with no big items.

The Council was asked their opinion of a plan by Ayda's to redo their sidewalks so that they could be used for outdoor seating. Ayda's had originally wanted to have some tree islands in the sidewalk but trees in the downtown sidewalks have not worked out well so they were considering planter boxes instead. The Council said they liked the concept and wanted Ayda's to continue working with City officials. The sidewalk along Van Rensselaer has been torn up and Ayda's intends to replace the sidewalk along Harrison as well.

Turning to the agenda, the Council approved putting insurance proceeds from a damaged police car back in the Police Department's budge. (The car hit a deer.)  It approved transfers of funds for two departments and also approved the purchase of .23 acres at Wood and Mattheson for a lift station for the upcoming sewer project. The Project Manager was given permission to get quotes for a replacement of a 2012 backhoe that is heavily used but keeps having problems.

The City wants to update its comprehensive plan that was last updated in 2007. It will need grant money to do this and the first step is an income survey. The Council approved $1500 for the survey. The Council approved Juneteenth as a holiday for 2021 but will also need to amend the salary ordinance before City employees will have the day off.

In comments from the City superintendents, the Police Chief noted that his department was at full strength after the latest hire had completed work at the police academy. The City Attorney suggested that the City needs some kind of loitering ordinance because there are  problems from people hanging out in the City parking lot across the River from Potawatomi Park. Weather permitting, paving of McKinley Street will begin Wednesday. The high-rate treatment plant has been working since Friday. The rain gauge at the sewage plant recorded 4.5 inches of rain since Friday. The City has accumulated enough surplus stuff that it will begin planning for an auction. The City has applied for something called a Swift grant. The matching requirements are unclear and the City will use its financial consultant Baker-Tilley to deal with the red tape involved.

The Jasper County BZA met at 7:00 at the Sparling Annex with a Zoom option. Once again there were audio problems for those on Zoom. The BZA had two items on the agenda. It approved a setback variance for a pole structure that will be 17 feet from the back property line. The second item approved was a frontage variance. In this case the petitioner wants to combine ten undeveloped lots and an undeveloped road in the Georgetown subdivision into two big lots. If the road is vacated so it deadends at the property line, the frontage for one lot is less than the Code requires. The variance was approved. At the end of the Plan Commission meeting that followed, the Plan Commission also approved the proposal to combine the ten lots and the undeveloped road into two new lots.

The Plan Commission had several requests for rezoning. The one that was most interesting and took the longest was a proposal that had been discussed several months ago, a plan to build cabins for short-term rentals on a 60+ acre site with a small lake. This proposal had been floated at the April meeting and no action was taken. At this meeting the request was to rezone part of the parcel from A1 to A2 so that three buildable lots could be created. The plan is to sell these lots for residences. The developers wanted the rest of the roughly 60 acres to be rezoned PR, Parks and Recreation. There is nothing in the planning code that fits a proposal for short-term cabin rentals, but the PR zoning seemed closest. Because vacation rentals is not one of the three uses specified for the PR zoning, the BZA would need to grant a special exception before any construction occurred.

After discussion, with members of the public voicing both concerns and support, the Commission recommended approving the rezoning requests. The matter now passes to the Commissioners, who have final say. However, this approval is only the first of several that must be obtained. 

The rest of the requests were more routine. Perkins Good Earth Farms requested a rezone from A2 to A4 for two acres. A4 is ag business and the farm is now selling produce from their barn. It was approved and will go to the Commissioners. A request to split a lot into two lots to create a two-lot subdivision was approved. A request to rezone a 6.5 acre lot from A1 to R (residental) and then split it into three lots to from a subdivision was approved. The land is surrounded by current subdivisions. The next meetings will be July 19 if there are items on the agenda.