September is almost gone

On Saturday the almost annual Oktoberfest returned after missing last year. There was a German band early (that occasionally played German music) and another band later when the cool people came (and I had left).

There were fewer food vendors this year and not much German food. 

But do people really come for the food?

On Sunday I went to Chicago for a family event. It reminded me why I am happy to live in Rensselaer.

On Monday the last City Council of September met with a routine agenda. The Council quickly adopted the 2022 budget, passed an ordinance for utility deposits that corrected one number in the old ordinance, transferred some funds, and approved the electric tracker for the fourth quarter, a $3.75 increase per 1000 kilowatt hours. 

Water well #6 has some problems so the Council approved $30989 to clean it. The process will take about a month. It also approved a contract for $24600 for a company that will help the City prepare for the next Community Crossings grant. Tricks or treating will be on October 31 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

In the administrative comments part of the meeting, George Cover wanted to have a dollar amount rather than a percentage amount in the budget for family health insurance for City employees. His request was approved by the Council. Ernst Watson suggested that a door be placed in the hallway of City Hall for security and also Covid reasons. The City Clerk-Treasurer was given permission to advertise for supply bids using the existing specifications. The Mayor ranted about people not getting the Covid vaccine. The Council was reminded it needed to pass a salary ordinance. At this meeting it approved a 2% pay raise, which is what was budgeted in the budget adopted at the beginning of the meeting. 

In Superintendents reports, Police Chief Anderson said that nine people were coming for testing to fill the two empty police positions. There was a brief discussion about trucks diverted from the Interstate, which has happened several times recently. (On Friday southbound traffic came through town most of the morning and half of the afternoon. It was a mess.) The aerial truck that the Fire Department has on order may be delivered by the end of October. A new employee started in the electric utility. Next week there will be people wandering in yards. They are part of the annual survey looking for gas-line leaks. 

The meeting adjourned at 6:35 and the sun was setting. The long days of summer are over, as is most of September.

The renovation of McDonalds continues, with windows being installed last week.

Signs

On Sunday the Jasper Newton Foundation held what it called the "Window Sash Bash Open House" to celebrate the restored windows in the Carnegie Center. The event also dedicated the relatively new sign for the building.

On the back of the sign is a plaque saying that the sign is dedicated in memory of Robert Lewis and in honor of Linda Reiners, who were instrumental in repurposing the building after the Library moved.

The event had a speaker who talked about the importance of quality of life and how preserving old buildings can improve the quality of life of a community.

The renovation cost about $110K and was funded lby a 50K grant from Indiana Landmarks and another grant of $7500. The company that did the work is based in Plymouth, Indiana.

Recently I noticed the sign below. It is at the former State Highway site, which is now an empty lot. Since the State is still the owner, I suspect there were no bids, which is not a surprise because the potential liabilities from chemical pollution are high. At one time the State was willing to give the property to the City and the City did not want it because of those potential liabilities.

Save-A-Lot recently got a new sign.

So did Pizza Hut along with a new roof. The former roof was red.

eMbers has new signage.

The color of the corn is a sign that it is harvest time. Wednesday is the vernal equinox, which some consider the end of summer.

Another sign of fall are the pumpkins and mums that Strack and Van Til is selling.

Last week the Weinermobile paid a visit to Strack & Van Til. I asked the two people who came with the vehicle what the purpose of the visit was and was told it gave people a chance to take pictures. I saw quite a few people posing themselves or others with the vehicle. 

AutoZone is resurfacing their parking lot.

This past weekend was busy. Francesville had its fall festival, Wheatfield had its Sandhill Crane festival, SJC had a homecoming for alumni at Lake Banet, there was some kind of horse event at the Fairgrounds, and Reinforcements Design had a car show featuring cars designed by Ferdinand Porsche. I went to the Memories Alive Cemetery Walk at Weston Cemetery. The program for this year's walk as well as the previous years can be found here. 

The re-enactor below is portraying Martha Sharp. She married one of the two Joseph Sharps buried in Weston Cemetery. The other is in a grave about 20 yards away and he married Martha's sister. The other Joseph Sharp had three children, one of whom is buried not with her parents but with her aunt and uncle. I have no evidence for this, but my guess is that she was buried in the lot of the wrong Joseph Sharp.

This year we featured Civil War soldiers from Jasper County who died in the War and are buried in Weston Cemetery. Someone asked me if there were any Confederate soldiers buried in Weston Cemetery. I was surprised to learn a year or two ago that there are two.

The BZA and Plan Commission met Monday night. The BZA had one cause, a request for a frontage variance. The Code says that a property in the country should have 250 feet. The petitioners wanted to split a lot so the house could be sold and they could keep the farm buildings. The lot with the house did not meet the 250-foot requirement but the members of the Board did not seem to have problems with that.. Rather they wondered if the lot line for the house met the setback requirement for adjacent buildings (12 feet) so decided to continue the matter until the October 18 meeting.

The Plan Commission had two rezone requests, both A1 to A2 so that houses could be put on two-acre parcels. (The requirement for a house on an A1 lot is a ten-acre parcel.) One was for the same property in the BZA cause and both were approved. They now go to the Commissioners for their approval.

One Tuesday night the County Council met. They rescinded two additional appropriations from the previous meeting and then reapproved them coming from a different fund. The Sheriff outlined his plans to contract with a food vendor for jail meals. He expects a significant savings and plans to implement the change in October. The Council had no objections to him rehiring a deputy who had left. The salary will be more than for a new deputy but there will be savings on training and outfitting.

The President of the Council read the 2022 budget, which was a lot of numbers that made no sense when heard rather than read. There were raises for County employees. The Council then heard from four entities that must get Council approval for their budgets. (The vote will be at the September meeting.) First up was the Rensselaer Central School Corporation, which needs Council approval because it has an appointed school board. The total budget is $10.19 million, higher than last year. The Corporation receives $7000 per student from the State. Last year the Corporation was down about 100 students from the previous year but this year it is up about 30 students from last year. It faces a slow decline in enrollment, which is quite common among rural areas (and probably some city areas–fertility rates have fallen.) 

Next up was the Airport Authority. The Council met the new airport manager, Emily Hackler. The Airport has little change in its budget.

The Indiana Solid Waste District had a slight decrease in its budget. It serves nine counties and because Jasper County has the highest assessed valuation of those counties, our Council approves its budget. 

Finally the Iroquois Conservancy presented a flat budget. It has a new secretary/treasurer, Kim DeWees. It would like to have the farm land in Benton County that is in the Iroquois watershed to pay the same assessment as watershed farmers in Newton and Jasper counties.

A lot of pictures

I have taken a lot of pictures over the past few days, many at the Little Cousin Jasper Parade. The parade's most impressive entry was from the local fire department.  They brought their old horse-drawn wagon from their museum. I do not know if you can see from the picture, but Rensselaer is misspelled on the wagon.

 Immediately following the wagon were firefighters carrying a very large American flag.

With the firefighters marching, they could not be providing noise with their truck sirens. However, plenty of noise was provided by about a half dozen huge tow trucks from D-1.

There were lots of kids whose main interest was the candy that many of the parade entries threw out. Even adults were interested in the bags of donut holes that Main Street Bakery tossed out.

There were quite a few other businesses that had parade entries. I thought the Rensselaer Septic Tanks entry was strange for a parade.

There were no marching bands in this year's parade. The grand marshal was unusual. It was the Court House. Since the Court House could not be in the parade, its place was taken by Couny officials.

Another unusual entry was that from the Bridge Chursh. It featured a person in a seat the rotated around on at least two axes. 

The oldest car was about the same age as the members of the Class of 1956.

A lot of people, most with children, attended the parade.

I did not spend a lot of time at the Festival itself. One of the attractions that caught my attention was this one in which kids were zippered into large balls that floated on a shallow pool of water.

On Sunday there was a demolition derby for kids and I had to see what that was about. The kids had balloons attached to the front of their little cars and the last one with balloons intact was the winner. There were supposed to be three age groups, but very few kids entered so they all ran together.

The Fendig Gallery has a new exhibit that will be in the Carnegie Center until October 1.  It is the Jasper County Art League's Annual Themed Show and this year the theme is "Sounds of Harmony." What would you paint or draw if given that theme? Below are some of the items on display.

The gallery is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon until 4:00 and by appointment.

On Sunday the Memories Alive Cemetery Walk had its dress rehearsal. One of the persons featued this year is Stella Aldrich Zea, whose son Ernest was not only blind but had legs that did not work. Both are buried in unmarked graves in the lot of Henry Aldrich, Stella's father. Ernest Zea lived to be 70 and died in 1952 so older people might remember him. 

Until recently Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson was also in an unmarked grave but a few years ago the Historical Society with support from Jasper County Tourism installed a small marker. Atkinson is listed as one of the famous people from Rensselaer on Wikipedia.

Who do you think the person in this strange costume is portraying? None of his descendants live here, but he left his name on a street.

The program has been printed and is ready for the Saturday performances.

There will be tickets sold at the event, but they will cost more than tickets purchased earlier. Tickets are for sale at Brown's Garden Shop.

Below is the sponsors' page from the program.

The previous post discussed Monday's City Council meeting. Before that meeting, the Rensselaer Board of Public Works met. It approved a promotion to sergeant for one of the police officers and invoices for law work, consulting on land surveying, design work on an upcoming water project, and the final design for a sewer project. The Board approved a schedule for bidding the sewer project, which includes a new lift station. Bids will be due October 25 at 4:00 and they will be opened at a special meeting at 5:00 the same day. 

A long City Council meeting

 The City Council meeting on Monday evening was unusually long, lasting an hour and twenty minutes. After the usual preliminaries (invocation, pledge, roll call, approval of minutes), the Council approved two street closings. One was for the Saint Augustine Fall Frolic on October 2 that will use a block of Susan Street, and the second was for a few feet of Harrison Street on September 25 for an Eagle's benefit.

Also in the Citizen's Comments part of the meeting, Stace Pickering presented a proposal for the development of Filson Park with a picture of how the finished park  could appear. (See picture) This concept had received approval from the Park Board earlier this month. The work needed would be funded by he Filsons and construction could begin in the Spring of 2022. After some discussion, a motion to approve the concept and move forward was approved. (At the end of the meeting Noelle Weishaar noted that she did not like the land being used as a park because it limits potential for economic development.)

Next was a public hearing on the 2022 budget. A lot of numbers were read that no one really understands. There were no public comments. The budget will be approved at the next meeting.

The Council passed amendment to its policy and procedures that had to do with the new Juneteenth Federal holiday. I suspect but am not sure that Juneteenth will become a City holiday. 

Head of the Jasper County Economic Development Organization (JCEDO) presented a proposed tax-abatement ordinance. It is similar or identical to ordinances passed by Jasper County, Remington, and DeMotte and uses a scorecard to determine the abatement. It also reduces the abatement to 97%, with the extra 3% going ultimately to JCEDO for their help in smoothing the regulatory path, and this was the item that seemed to most concern members of the Council. Ultimately it was tabled (which I believe was out of order. There was no motion on the floor so there was nothing to table.)

The gas tracker adjustment of September will be a 1.36¢ decrease per hundred cubic feet. At the last meeting a gas hedging agreement was passed, but it needed a roll-call vote, not just a voice vote, so at this meeting a roll-call vote was held, with all members voting for the measure.

There was a long discussion of a recommendation from an insurance committee that had met to discuss health insurance for City employees. At present the City covers all but a $1.00 of the cost of health insurance for employees, but very little of the cost of dependent insurance. (Why the $1.00? Because the State does not allow the City to cover 100%.) The recommendation was to pay about 50% (based on the previous year's cost) of dependent insurance. Eventually the Council accepted the recommendation.

Someone is interested in buying the light plant equipment. The Council authorized the Mayor and Mr Cover to negotiate to a letter of intent.

There will be no Trunk or Treat for Halloween this year. The Council did not decide on trick-or-treat hours because someone said that in a previous year they had set trick-or-treat hours for this year. (It was at the March 2020 meeting. It set the last Sunday in October for years 2020 to 2022.)

The salary ordinance was amended to increase the salaries of linemen in the electric utility. That utility has had problems keeping journeymen linemen after they complete their training.

The Fire Chief wants a committee to explore the future of the department. Councilmen Watson and Cover agreed to serve. He noted that the fire department has made about 200 calls this year and some of them are medical. There will be a dedication and ribbon cutting for the Fire Fighting Training facility on October 5 at 5 pm.

The Airport has hired a new manager to replace Ray Seif who resigned a few weeks ago to take a job in Kansas. She is a recent grad of Indiana State and is presently working at the Gary airport. She will start part-time and become full-time on October 3.

Here are a couple of pictures of floats from last week's homecoming parade.

I am tired of writing. More later.

Lots of stuff

 The usual round of meetings on the first Monday of the month was pushed back to Tuesday because of the Labor Day holiday. The Commissioners met Tuesday morning with an unexciting agenda. They approved a buried cable request that will serve Omni Forge south of Remington and heard a resident request paving a three-mile stretch of a gravel road in Walker Township. They approved vacating one alley in Kniman. The issue had been presented at the June meeting and left unresolved.

The Health Department reported that Dr. Christopher Louck will replace Dr Nelson as its medical director beginning November 1. The Department received permission to replace a part-time nurse and received approval to apply for two State grants. (State auditors want all County grant applications to receive Commissioner approval.) The County is 42.1% vaccinated for Covid.

KIRPC received a grant that allows 6 of its 8 counties to develop a value-added agricultural strategy. The grant is an 18-month grant that began in May. The lady from KIRPC gave a presentation that the Commissioners followed with the help of a handout. The gist was that our rural counties are strong in agriculture and should try to leverage that strength for economic development. She referenced a Purdue website with lots of data broken down by county. (It is here.)

After the Commissioners gave the Surveyor's office permission to sell some surveying data, the Sheriff received permission to fill five vacancies: a correctional officer who had a baby, a retiring cook, a newly hired dispatcher who did not like the job, and two road deputies that were recent hires and also did not like the job. He then discussed the possibility of contracting out meal service at the jail. Of the 75 current inmates, 23 have special diets. He said that a company that is in the business of providing meals to inmates could reduce the jail's total costs of feeding prisoners. With the retirement of the cook, this may be a good time to make a switch. A formal proposal to make the switch may come at the October meeting. 

There was a brief discussion of a lightning strike that hit the Court House a week or two ago. It damaged some phones and copiers and there seems to be some difficulty in getting them replaced, perhaps because of supply-chain disruptions.

The Marion Township trustee is trying to establish an ambulance service but the surrounding townships do not seem interested in joining. The Commissioners passed two motions, one to move forward with planning for a central ambulance service and the second to advertise for bids for ambulance service.

On the topic of animal shelter repairs, the Commissioners approved spending to do the repairs originally planned and the repairs from the damage caused by a vehicle running into the building. Spending on expansion was put on hold because it would raise the total cost and at the high cost more State regulations would kick in. More than half of the total that was approved will be covered by an insurance settlement. The Animal Control Board needs a new law-enforcement officer to replace the member who resigned from the Rensselaer Police Department. 

When a legal notice must be published twice, a recently passed State law allows the second publication to be on the County website. The Commissioners approved the County to take advantage of this new law. The meeting was continued until September 21 at 8:15, if needed.

In the afternoon the Drainage Board met with a few minor items on the agenda that involved NIPSCO. There is not normally a meeting in October but this year there will be one after the Commissioners meeting to open bids.

I am short of pictures for this post. Below are two homeless people who were sitting outside the Sparling Annex during the Commissioners meeting. The wind was blowing and they came inside for the Drainage Board meeting. They were very quiet and not at all disruptive.

In the evening the Park Board met despite a storm that passed through. There was a discussion of ways to honor the late Bill Wornoff who was for some years the president of the Park Board and was the moving force behind the establishment of the dog park. He will probably be memorialized with a tree and plaque at the dog park.

There was a discussion of how to spend an anticipated donation that the donor wants spent on something permanent. There are still a couple events scheduled for the Blacker Fields. Overall the season went very well and the Park cleared about $15,000, mostly from concessions. Much bigger has been the impact on local businesses, especially the restaurants. The softball group that scheduled tournaments this year would like to do four in 2022 and the baseball group would like to do 8. There are also a couple of other organizations interested in scheduling tournaments. The hotel bookings for next year will be done through South Shore and the Park should get a cut of that revenue. (The revenue that the Park gets is used to fund Park programs and improvements.)

There are plans to relocate the tennis courts. A possible location is north of the soccer field. Some preliminary plans to develop the new Filson Park (site of the former Town Mall that burned a couple years ago) have been drawn up. They feature a small fountain in the middle, a shelter with restroom on the south, and a small stage along the alley. As when the City Council agreed to accept the land as a park, there was a concern of whether this land would be better used for economic development, but the Board agree to endorse the concept. It will now go to the City Council for their endorsement. (The development of the Park will be financed by the family that donated the land.)

As the meeting drew to a close, there was a discussion of vandalism in the parks. During that discussion someone mentioned that sometime this summer Lady Godiva came to Brookside Park and other parts of Rensselaer riding a bicycle instead of a horse. Apparently her ride was witnessed by a number of people, including members of one the school sports teams. 

Update: I had intended to attend the Airport Authority Board meeting via Zoom on Thursday evening but got distracted and forgot to log in. I wanted to know if the person offered the airport manager had accepted. To find out I e-mailed someone who was at the meeting and was told that the first choice had declined. The search committee did another interview and made a second recommendation that was approved at the meeting.  

September already

The Labor Day weekend has begun as I publish this. For many people it marks the end of summer. It used to mark the beginning of school, which may be why it marked the end of summer. The days will be getting much shorter over the next six weeks and the sun will sink to the south. Some of the later flowers of summer are blooming but not yet most of the asters.

This has been a very productive year for fruit trees. I have heard several people comment on bumper crops of peaches, pears, and apples. (Which reminds me that quite a few years ago I used the term "bumper crop" in a class and had several students tell me that they had never heard the term. I was surprised, but perhaps they did not have the advantage of growing up in a rural area.) I have also heard that some fields are already being harvested.

The Weston Cemetery Walk event had its first reading by re-enactors last weekend. One purpose of the reading is to get the presentations as close to eight minutes as possible so that the flow of people from station to station will be smooth. This year will focus on the eastern part of the cemetery and will feature eight people buried there. The walk will have an interesting mix of people. Do you know why Sparling Avenue has its name? How many young men from Jasper County died in the Civil War and are buried in Weston Cemetery? Who is the most famous author buried there? These questions and many others will be answered on September 18.

The primary election next May in Jasper County will feature voting centers. You will no longer have to vote at your local polling place but will be able to vote at any of the ten voting locations in Jasper County. For Rensselaer the closest will be at the Fire Station and the Fairgrounds.  More information is available at the County Clerk's office here.

The basketball court at Brookside park is now painted and both goals are installed.

Construction continues at McDonalds. On Wednesday I noticed that the old walls were gone. I was told by a supervisor that the old windows had been donated to the Fire Department to be used for training. 

On Friday the new front was being closed in. 

Also on Wednesday I noticed a concrete truck inside the new electric department storage building pouring concrete. I am used to buildings being build from the bottom up: first the floor, then the walls, and finally the roof. This building started with the roof, then did the walls, and finally did the floor.

On Friday the new floor was finished.

On Friday the Tourism Commission met. It approved a request from the Prairie Arts Council for $4300 to help clear-coat the new murals (to protect them from weather and vandals). Revenues from the inn-keepers tax are up this year compared to both 2020 and 2019 and some of that growth is due to tournaments at the Blacker Fields. The Jasper Jaunt bike ride drew 36 riders and had favorable comments. A new Tourism and Community Relations Coordinator was introduced to the Commission. She will be working part time for a while as she is a senior at Purdue. (The person she replaced has moved down the block and is working for Gutwein Seeds.)

There are multiple of events scheduled for next weekend: Little Cousin Jasper Festival, Rock the Arts at Carpenter Creek, several dinners or breakfasts, and a car show at Fair Oaks Farms. In the past the second weekend of the month featured the Rensselaer Cross Country Invitational, but I believe that meet no longer is on the schedule. (Update: I was told that the Invitational still exists but now is a middle-school-only event. It is one of the bigger middle-school meets.) (The Jasper-Newton Foundation seems to have discontinued their community event calendar.)

Have a safe and enjoyable weekend.