Cars and guns

 The 36th Annual Car Show and Cruise Nite took place on Saturday. There were 117 cars entered in the Car Show.

Most of them were not as old as the cars I chose to photograph.

I did not see any of these old cars in the Cruise.

The Cruise was well attended, with people lining the streets along the Cruise route. However, at least while I was there, there seemed to be fewer cars than in past years. I kept looking for something interesting to photograph and finally found this limo pulling onto the highway from the College Mall parking lot. I do not think it was part of the Cruise.

After I left the Cruise, I could hear the horns beeping for a couple of hours.

The other big event of the weekend was the Fendig Theater production of a couple of short plays. The performances were held outside at Foundation Park. Below is the stage.

Murals are back in the news. I guessed at what might be on the upcoming Kentland mural and was mostly right.  I did not know about Perfection Fairfax and I had forgotten about his owner, former Indiana governor Warren McCray. Next week I expect to do several posts about new Rensselaer murals.

Visiting Main Street Bakery, I was able to take a picture of Medaryville's downtown mural. The artist is Zach Medler, who lives in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Blueberry season has started. Some corn is tasselling. On Friday roof trusses were being put in place on the addition to Pipestone Veterinary Services. New sidewalk is in place on one side of Ayda's

The Rensselaer BZA met Thursday evening with nothing specific on the agenda. They decided that future meetings would be held on the second Thursday of the month at 6:00 when there is an agenda.

It was a meeting with open discussion and the first item discussed was a proposal for a shooting range for 4-H sports. This shooting range had previously been proposed for County land adjacent to the Airport but opposition from the Airport Authority Board resulted in the abandonment of that site. The new site for the proposed shooting range is on County land east of the County Jail and north of the newly-constructed Jail solar farm. This range would not be open to the public but restricted to use by the 4-H shooting program, the Sheriff's Department, and possibly the Rensselaer Police Department. The range would have 15 foot side berms and a 25 foot end berm. The Board asked questions and told the proposer what kinds of information they would like in a formal presentation. A shooting range is not mentioned as a possible use for any zoning classification in the City Code, so special permission in the form of a variance or a conditional-use approval would be needed. The attorney suggested that a conditional-use approval would be better than a variance because with it the Board could attach whatever additional restrictions it wanted and could also stipulate that the use be reviewed in future years.

 

The Board continued with short discussions of people working from their homes (which can cause problems for neighbors). There were concerns about unsightly lots, with the quote of the night following: "It is not against the law to be a hillbilly." The training facility that the Fire Department has constructed has been getting use, including from law enforcement for training K-9 units. There will the start of Phase II construction at the facility beginning this month. Good Oil, formerly Trail Tree, has a round-up program with proceeds going to fund the Fire Department training area.

There was a short discussion of St. Joe's. Apparently a reputable company would like to purchase the athletic facilities and cannot get a call back. The Board's attorney told them there was really nothing they could do to force any action by SJC.

I learned a new word at the meeting: barndominium. Essentially they seem to be living quarters constructed with pole-barn techniques. There is someone interested in constructing one in Rensselaer. There was also a discussion of tiny houses, houses that are smaller than what the City's building code allows. One group that is interested in them are widows and widowers who want to live close to sons or daughters but not under the same roof. Finally, Rensselaer is not electric-car friendly. If you have an electric car, it is desirable to have a second electrical service but the code allows only one service per residence. (Though if Rensselaer went all-electric, it is not clear it could provide the electricity that would be demanded.)