More scarecrows

The giant pumpkin landed on ScareCrow Trail in Milroy Park. It is actually a septic tank and was entered by Rensselaer Septic Tanks. 

Leggett & Platt wants you.

The entry from the Riley and Ahler law firm.

When I first saw this one, I thought the scarecrow was golfing. The scarecrows are from Browns' Garden Shoppe and the scarecrow is hoeing.

I believe this is the second display that is based on the movie Hocus Pocus. It is a creation of the Rensselaer Care Center.

The Jasper-Newton Foundation is celebrating its 30th-year anniversary this year.

When I took this picture, this scarecrow did not have a sign. Later when it had a sign, "RCMS is proud of our new NJHS members," it no longer had a head.

I do not know what the RCCTA is.

The Tri-Kappa scarecrow.

The overall quality of the scarecrows was better this year than in some past years.

On Thursday evening the Fire Department hosted an open house for Fire Prevention Week. There were lots of kids and they liked the bouncy house.

The kids had to remove their shoes before entering the inflatable. I hope everyone found the right shoes at the end.

The firemen had some unusual games for the kids.

On Sunday morning there was another accident on I-65 that diverted traffic through Rensselaer. I was on a bike that morning when I got to SR 114 on Angelica Street and decided to see if riding a bike was faster than driving on the roads. I was slightly behine a Kroger truck. When I got to McDonalds I had to wait about two minutes for the truck to pass me. The stop sign where Washington meets College seemed to slow the traffic more than any other stop.

I got to the Board of Public Works meeting late on Monday afternoon, partly because I stopped and took some pictures of the rainbow. A line of heavy rain was leaving Rensselaer and the sun had just appeared in the west, creating a bright rainbow in the east.

Idid not notice at first, but it was a double rainbow, as this picture taken at the entrance to City Hall shows.

I took another picture of the rainbow and the Court House.

I missed the first item on the BPW agenda, the approval of a Commonwealth Engineering invoice for planning they are doing for a future water project. The City is hoping that a substantial grant will make that project feasible.

The Fire Department would like to operate a drone for several possible uses. The Board approved both procedures and guidance for this drone use. The Fire Department will be developing more operating procedures in the upcoming months because in the latest evaluation of the Department, they were heavily criticized for not having codified procedures.

The first item on the City Council meeting was the salary ordinance for 2022. Before they passed it, the Mayor mentioned that there are still two electric plant operators on the payroll and that he wants them kept until the engines in the power plant are sold and removed. At least one is reading meters because there is little to do at the power plant. The Council then spent most of the meeting discussing a contract that employees sign for training and continuing education, an issue of importance for the police and workers in the electric utility where new hires require lengthy and expensive training. The workers must pay for that training but are then reimbursed. They are supposed to sign a contract in which they agree to pay back the City if they quit early. For the police the contract says that if the City needs to hire a lawyer to help collect what the former employee owes, the former employee will be liable for those lawyer fees. This has never been invoked for any employee who quit early. After discussion, in which it was revealed that often these contracts are not signed, the Council agreed to include the language that is in the police contract for employees of the electric department. The Council also passed the salary ordinance, which establishes salaries for 2022.

There was a small but meaningless decline in the gas tracker for October. Later in the meeting the Mayor warned that it was highly likely the City will be seeing higher natural gas prices soon. NIPSCO and other nearby gas utilities have already had significant price hikes. Also, the gas department is having problems getting steel pipe needed to connect new customers. 

The Police Department is in the process of hiring two new officers. The aerial truck that the Fire Department ordered has been built. Work on repaving the roads in the northwest addition to Weston Cemetery was finished on Saturday.