XI-II-MMXXI (All Souls Day)

As November starts, we have color in some of the maples. 

The hickories are turning yellow and gold.

Rensselaer had a frost on October 27 that killed a few frost-sensitive plants. This week we are getting many more nights that dip below freezing. The City's leaf vacuum has been out sucking up the few leaves that are in the streets. There is again water in Weston Pond.

On Saturday when I was working outside late in the afternoon, I  heard and then saw thousands of birds flying south. They sounded like grackles. They seemed to be taking advantage of the north wind to aid their flight.

Rensselaer Pet Care is opening their new office east of Fountain Stone Theater. They will keep their old location for pet boarding. Sage Bridal Studio is open by appointment. I suspect they will do a lot by appointment; how many people will browse a bridal shop? 

The business moving into the former Cooper Tire building is A&B Auto Care and their sign says that they are now open for business.

The alley behind Fenwick's has been blocked off so work can continue on the old carriage house.

I stopped by the Saint Augustine rummage sale as it ended to make sure they had enough helpers for cleanup. They did. One of the odd items they had was a stack of twenty or thirty slide carousels, all in their original boxes. I was told they attracted interest, including people who wondered what they were. We live in an age where technology changes very quickly.

Jenna Morrello has finished her sunflower mural in Otterbein. I doubt if I will ever post a picture of it. I cannot remember ever visiting Otterbein.

The County Commissioners met Monday and there were as many people attending via Zoom as in person. Few of the people on Zoom said anything; I think they want to listen to those parts that interest them while being able to continue their normal activities. The Commissioners' health insurance agent gave them three options for the employees' share of the cost of health insurance. Last year the employees were given no wage increase but the County picked up the cost of higher insurance. This year employees were given a 5% wage increase. The option the Commissioners approved will have the employees paying a bit more for their insurance than they did last year. The Auditor, speaking on behalf of the employees, noted that the 5% increase in wages will likely be completely eaten up by inflation.

A contractor for the Dunn's Bridge solar farm requested permission to bore under County roads in eight places, with multiple pipes in each bore. All are in Kankakee Township and the request was approved. 

Representatives from Solential were present to answer questions about the solar farm at the County Jail. It seems that the utility bills have not declined. They answered that usage has gone up a bit and so have rates.  The base rate increased just a bit, but something called the demand rate, a charge for very high usage, has hit the jail hard. Only 54% of the electricity that the solar array generated was used by the jail and 46% was sold to IMPA. IMPA pays much less than it charges. So the Solential representatives said that they would work with the jail to try to get more of the electrical usage moved to the times when the solar array is generating. 

There were two bids for ambulance service, both from Phoenix which presented two options. One was to work with Marion Township to help get its ambulance service started. There was a long discussion with representatives of all ambulance services in Jasper County about the difficulties in hiring paramedics and to some extent EMTs. Franciscan is apparently not cooperating with anyone for transfers and these hospital transfers are a problem in rural areas. No bid was accepted and the Commissioners will see how planning for a Marion EMT service is going at the December meeting.

The Commissioners approved the Sheriff moving ahead with a plan to cut water usage at the jail and approved his request to replace three employees, two corrections officers and a dispatcher, all of whom left for other jobs. 

At a past meeting the Commissioners had approved a truck that would be shared with the Health Department and the Highway Department. The Health Department decided that this was not a good arrangement for them and will purchase its own truck with non-County funds. The Health Department has two grant proposals pending that would allow the Department to move two part-time employees to full-time status. The Commissioners approved the plan if the grant is funded. In a COVID update, 46.1% of the population is fully vaccinated. As of the end of the month, there have been 82 Covid-related deaths in the County, up from  65 on October 1.

The Commissioners approved an agreement with NextEra for Phase II of the Dunn's Bridge Solar Project. It covers tax abatement, fees NextEra will pay the County, a road use agreement, and a decommissioning agreement.

The Coroner wants a second full-time person and would like to discuss with the Commissioners how it could be done. There were seven properties that did not sell at a recent tax sale. They might be sold at a Commissioners' sale. Two of the properties may have contamination and the County would not want to take possession of them if that were necessary to put them up for sale. The Commissioners decided they needed more information.

On November 15 hundreds of school children will visit the Court House for tours.

The meeting was continued until November 15 at 8:30, if necessary.

In the afternoon the Drainage Board met. Two of the Commissioners attended via speaker phone. There was a bid opening for cleaning one of the County's ditches. There was only one bid, for $28,679. Next was a drainage plan for a development named Brightstone Lake, a proposal to build some vacation-rental cabins around a 18-acre lake in the center of the County. There were several options presented, and the Board approved the one that they thought would be best for neighbors. There may be no development on the project for a while.

There were two items from Phase II of the Dunn's Bridge project. One was for boring under tiles and drains and the other to replace culverts with bridges for four drain or stream crossings. The culverts had previously been approved. Both requests were approved.