A few highlights from 2022

2022 brought some openings and closings. There were ribbon cuttings for All Aligned Chiropractic Clinic and Freida's. S-blended Nutrition had a ribbon cutting to celebrate changed ownership, and then a few months later moved down the street.  New on Washington Street was the Baked Bean. Biscuit & A Bath, a pet supply store, opened on Cullen north of the railroad tracks. Browns Garden Shoppe changed ownership and had a ribbon cutting. The Country Bumpkin, Schmidy's Pizza Palace, Jordan's Floral, and Steffen's Jewelry all closed. Help at Home closed its office and day services in the College Mall and now provides services from its Valpo office. Walgreens closed its large store and moved into a much smaller building. Rensselaer Parks redid the basketball court and constructed new tennis courts in Brookside Park. The high school demolished its old tennis courts and built new ones and also renovated its swimming pool. CDC Resources changed its name to Lirio Resources.

A few businesses moved. Walgreens was mentioned above. Sage Bridal Studio moved to a building on McKinley south of Jackson's Funeral Home. S-blended Nutrition moved into the space Sage vacated. Risner Insurance moved to the building that was once the Dumas Law office. The local optician, Nancy Bayly, sold her business and retired and the new owners are moving to what was Jordan Floral. 

County meetings will look different in 2023. Kendell Culp was elected to the State legislature and was replaced as commissioner by Jeff DeYoung, whose seat on the County Council was filled by Eric Kidwell. Richard Maxwell did not seek reelection and Rein Bontreger won the seat. He will be replaced on the Council by Jason Armold. The City will have elections in 2023 but in 2022 Frieda Bretzinger retired as Clerk-Treasurer and was replaced by Shelby Keys. The County and Marion Township spent many hours getting a new EMS service up and running, which will happen starting in January. (Much of the difficulty was due to State and Federal red tape.)

Early in the year the new Walgreens building was under construction. In the middle of the year Fenwick Farms built a roof for their outdoor patio. Construction continues on a new lift station for the City's sewer utility and renovation of the old admin building at the hospital to make it ready for the Apple Seed early childhood education center. Removal of the old electrical generation equipment from the City Power Plant took many months and is still not finished.

Mural week this year saw only three new murals, but one was a spectacular picture on Ayda's.

During the summer Rensselaer had a major storm that took down dozens and perhaps hundreds of trees. Rensselaer had a white and bitterly cold winter that shut down many businesses for a few days.  (I meant to mention in the last post that the drifting snow was unusually dirty. The wind blew not just snow but also topsoil from fields that had been tilled after the harvest.)

I am sure I have missed some highlights. Feel free to add them in the comments.

Have a Happy New Year!

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Here is a schedule of normal monthly meeting times, with time and place:

First Monday: 

Commissioners, 8:15 Sparling Annex
Drainage 1:00 Sparling Annex
Park Board 6:00 various

Second Monday

Rensselaer BZA 5:30 City Hall
City Council 6:00 City Hall
Animal Control Board 6:00 Sparling Annex
Jasper County Library Board meeting, 6:00 various

Second Tuesday

Tourism Commission 10:00 Sparling Annex
Airport Authority 6:00 Airport

Third Monday

Plan Commission and BZA, Court House 7:00

Third Tuesday

Historical Society 6:30 Museum
County Council 7:00 Sparling Annex
Rensselaer Central School Board 7:00 Van Rensselaer School

Fourth Monday

City Council 6:00 City Hall

We had a white (and very cold) Christmas

The Christmas Blizzard

On Friday we got a blizzard with bitterly cold temperatures and howling wind. Fortunately we did not get a lot of snow or else we would still be digging out. 

The cold left an interesting pattern on one of my storm windows.

The Iroquois River froze except in a few places where there is very rapid current. Below are pictures from the bowstring bridge, one looking downstream and the other upstream.

I could not find any large snow drifts but thought the way that even tiny flower stems resulted in little drifts was evidence of how strong the wind had been. 

I did not hear of a lot of damage caused by the blizzard, but Walmart was closed for most of Monday because of a burst pipe that I assume was caused by the cold.

Most of the snow should be melted by the start of 2023.

Commissioners meeting 

Each December the Commissioners have a final meeting at the end of December to take care of any County business that must be done before the new year. This year the meeting had a rather long agenda.

The Commissioners meetings will have a different lineup in 2023 than they had for most of 2022. After his election as State Representative in November, Kendell Culp resigned as Commissioner and was replaced by Jeff DeYoung. Richard Maxwell did not seek reelection and will be replaced in January by Rein Rontreger. At the start of their end-of -the-year meeting on Tuesday, both Culp and Maxwell were honored for their service with a plaque.

The first item on the agenda was a proposed annexation by the City of Rensselaer of what I call the Sparling Annex, the building that houses the County Health Department, CASA, and the County meeting room. SJC has approached the City asking for annexation (undoubtedly to cut utility bills, which are their largest expense) and the City would like to also annex the County property to prevent islands of land within the City. The two Commissioners at the meeting (one missed because of illness) were favorable but their attorney wanted some time to see if the rules for annexation gave the Commissioners any responsibilities that would apply to the annexation of SJC. The item will be back on the agenda for January.

A lady offering free microchipping of animals at the animal shelter said that the Animal Control Board had told her go to the Commissioners. The Commissioners told her to go back to the Animal Control Board because it was a matter for that Board. The Commissioners approved a rezone from A1 to A2 in Jordan Township that had been recommended by the Plan Commission. (The Plan Commission had been asked to rezone an 11 acre parcel but wanted to only rezone 4 acres because the other seven were in the floodplain of Carpenter Creek. So they approved it conditionally, requiring some jiggling of lot lines and that is why it did not get on the agenda earlier in the month.) The Commissioners decided to accept the bid from Titan Construction for the three-bay option for a new ambulance garage. The bid does not include some site work needed because there are buried remains of the old County Home where the new building will be built.

A deputy in the Circuit Court Office is leaving and the Commissioners approved replacing her. Trane Systems, responding to County concerns about Courthouse systems controls for heating and cooling, inspected the Courthouse and had an estimate for fixing the problems. The County Attorney had questions about the scope of the project, wondering if it would qualify as a public works project, in which case the work would have to be bid. He decided that it did not and the Commissioners approved $150,000 to Trane to do the work.

The Commissioners approved replacing two dispatchers at the Sheriff's Office. There was a brief discussion of alarm systems for the Health Department and the Commissioners wondered if the work could be combined with similar work at the Prosecutor's office.

 
Three bids for cash renting five parcels owned by the County and the Airport were opened and the high bid was accepted. That bid was for $342 for some of the plots and $322 for the others. The Commissioners approved EMS contracts for 2023, with $400,000 going to Keener Township EMS, $350,000 to Wheatfield Township EMS, and $470,000 to Jasper County EMS. Jasper County EMS, which will serve the County from CR 400N to the southern border of Jasper County, will go live on January 1. Phoenix will no longer be in the ambulance business.

The Commissioners signed a gaming permit that will allow bingo at the Fairgrounds. They accepted a bid from Kevin Moore to install electrical wiring in the new Health Department garage. It was noted that the Highway Department pulled many vehicles from snow drifts during the blizzard.

City Council meeting

It is not often that the The Rensselaer City Council meets on the same day as the County Commissioners, but it happened on Tuesday. In the public comment section of the meeting, the Mayor was asked about the removal of equipment from the power plant. The money received from the sale of equipment goes into a depreciation account and will be used for improvements to the electrical system. The demolition of the motors is being done for no cost to the City. The firm gets the metal from the engines. The pits and basement are being filled with sand. There was a diesel leak from a pipe and it was cleaned up by a contractor to the satisfaction of IDEM.

The electric tracker for the first quarter is $13.31 per gigawatt hour of usage. The average utility bill shows 700 kilowatts of usage, so that would be a $9.31 increase in the average bill. The County passed a series of encumbrances. This is an accounting measure that I do not understand, but is needed at the end of the year.  

The Mayor announced appointments to the Board of Public Works, the Park Board, and the Redevelopment Commission. I think all were re-appointments. The Council made appointments to the Northern Indiana Solid Waste District, Rensselaer Recycling, and the Redevelopment Commission.

The Council had approved a contract via a telephone poll to purchase a lot of land for the construction of a water tower near the I-65/SR-114 interchange. At the meeting they ratified the poll. The purchase price is $45,000.

The Winter Solstice

Today (Dec 21) is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Now the days will begin to get longer and the sun will rise and set a bit further to the north each day.

The forecast is for a white and very cold Christmas. If you are driving in the next few days, be very careful.

Special City Council meeting

On the 19th the Rensselaer City Council met in a special session to consider ordinances that change utility rates. The meeting began with a public hearing at which one person, a nonresident of Rensselaer who gets natural gas from the City, complained that his calculations showed rates were going up almost 24%. The response from the representative from Baker Tilley, the City's financial advisor, was that the new rates included the accumulated gas trackers, so what might appear as a rate increase actually was not. Some of the rate changes result from a more accurate estimate of costs of improvements to the utilities than those made the last time rates were adjusted.  Offsetting some of the potential increase was the State's elimination of utility receipts tax, which had been added to our utility bills.

The Council passed all four ordinances. A reason for passing them now even though most or all of the rate change will take effect in 2024 is that in January the Council will have a bond ordinance on the agenda and having the rates set is needed to sell the bond. The electric rate was only increased by 1.5% but there was a warning that an unusually high electric tracker adjustment is coming for the first quarter. (The trackers reflect the cost that the utilities have to pay for gas and electricity.) Even though the base rate (neglecting the tracker) for gas will be a small decrease, some people may have a noticeable increase in bills because customers have not been charged correctly for the monthly customer charge. This was supposed to be a charge added onto the charge for gas usage but the computer was treating it as a minimum charge. The software has been changed to treat it correctly.

County Council meeting

The County Council meeting on Tuesday evening had two public hearings for establishing economic revitalization areas. The Council had given them a preliminary passage, but a public hearing and a confirmatory passage was necessary for them to take effect.

The first was for a warehouse near DeMotte that is connected to Belstra Milling. Belstra is growing its feed brands offering feed sold at retail locations nationally and needs more space. Hence, their proposed 80' by 200' warehouse that may be expanded in the future if demand warrants it. The ordinance sets up a tax abatement that declines over six years. The second ERA was for FBI Builders in Remington, which is planning a facility to make trusses to be used by FBI and also sold to others. It will employ an additional 17 workers. The tax abatement for this project is also for 6 years. 

Rensselaer's Mayor Wood made a presentation for information purposes to the Council explaining that the City was preparing for the annexation of the SJC campus. It would also like to annex the bit of land that houses the County Health Department, CASA, and the County meeting room. He stressed this was a voluntary annexation, that the College had requested it. The Commissioners will have to decide if they want the County property included, which is probably to the County's benefit because it would give them lower utility rates for their building.

The Sheriff reported he had an applicant for the SRO position at KV schools, a position that Commissioners approved at their December meeting. He wanted to know where the Council was willing to start him in the pay matrix by determining how many years of experience it was willing to give him credit for. The Council approved an upper limit on the salary. He also gave a report on what he does with Commissary funds and the Council approved two additional uses.

The Council approved the salary ordinance for 2023 and an amendment to the 2022 salary ordinance that affects three members of the election board. The State Board of Accounts recommended that money in dormant funds, funds that had not had any activity for three or more years, be returned to the general account. There was a long list of such accounts, most with little money in them. The Council approved the measure with the exception of an Ebola grant that the Health Department thought it might be able to use in some way. 

The Council passed a list of additional appropriations. Many were precautionary to make sure that there would be enough money to pay bills before the end of the year. They also approved several transfer appropriations. The Health Department has four that were designed to pay employees extra for working on Covid-19 matters. However, they were told that they would not be able to use the money without an amendment to the salary ordinance and that could not be done this year. So the matter was tabled until January when, after advertising the amendment to the salary ordinance, the matter may finally be put to rest.

The Council approved its schedule for 2023 after reading off the dates. I think all the dates were the third Tuesdays of the month. After the schedule was passed, someone noticed that the July meeting was scheduled during County Fair week. It will either be changed or perhaps the meeting could be held at the Fairgrounds. Wouldn't that be interesting?

This was Rein Bontreger's last Council meeting and Erick Kidwell's first. Rein has served on the Council since July 2009 and has been president of the Council for most of those years. He was given a plaque by the other Council members honoring his service. In January he will become a County Commissioner.

Some Pictures

The Jasper County Historical Society helds its annual Christmas Party on Tuesday.

Its current exhibit is about Jessie Bartoo, who ran a photography studio in Rensselaer in the late 19th century. She died very young but left behind many pictures. The Historical Society recently was given many of her pictures and has about 200 of them.

Photographers of the age mostly took pictures of people.

But sometimes they took pictures of houses. This one is identified as the Eger House on South Van Rensselaer Street. I do not recognize it.  Has it been demolished?

Jessie was the aunt of Edison Marshall, who is now forgotten but was a best selling author early in the 20th century.

In a few weeks the optician office that is next to Ayda's will move into the former Jordan Floral building.

Next to it the former GRG Auto Repair is being remodeled. It sold earlier this month and will become the home of Rural Bling.

After two weeks of work, the garage for the Health Department has a shell.

There is little to see of the new lift station now that about ten feet of fill has been put around the building. 

Parts of the Iroquois River have frozen over. We will see if the parts with fast flowing water will freeze by Christmas. The forecast for later this week is that we will have a day with the highs barely above zero.

Have a Merry Christmas.

More decorating

BPW


The Board of Public Works met for its regular monthly meeting on Monday after it had met in executive session to interview two candidates for the open police officer position. In the regular meeting the Police Chief announced that one of the candidates had been selected for a conditional offer of employment. There are still some tests that the candidate must pass and he is expected to be sworn in sometime in January.

As usual, the bulk of the short meeting was devoted to approving invoices. Commonwealth Engineering had four, for work on the lift station, the elevated water storage, and for lead service line replacement. The lead service line replacement will be for Front, Weston, and some of Van Rensselaer. The other invoice approved was for Theineman Construction for work on the lift station project. The work on the exterior is finished and they are now filling around the structure and working inside the structure to install pumps and whatever else needs to be done there. The Board also approved moving ahead with the bid process, which has some deadlines imposed by the grant funder.


After the meeting I asked about the three large portable storage tanks that I noticed along the side of what was the SJC softball field. They were and may still be being used for maintenance work at the sewage plant.


City Council meeting

The first of three December City Council meetings was short and uneventful. The Council quickly approved establishing a fire-truck escrow fund and a gas-utility-truck escrow fund. They had been recommended by the State Board of Accounts and there was no explanation of what they did. Also recommended by the State Board of Accounts were changes in the ordinance for the Public Relations fund, so the Council repealed and replaced it. The gas tracker for December reflects a 1.5¢ increase per hundred cubic feet of usage. The Council approved some transfers of funds for various departments.

Baker Tilley, the City's financial advisor, prepared a resolution stating the initial use of a portion of ARPA funds. They will be used to pay the City's portion of the water main replacement and the brick street projects.

The Major announced that the City would be receiving a Community Crossings grant of $646,675. This is for road repair and construction and the City must match $1 for each $3 received. 

The Council approved two small cuts to the 2023 budget that the State said were necessary. The Cemetery is ready for Wreaths Across America on the 17th. The Council approved the purchase of a plow blade and a cab for a new mule that the Park Department acquired.

Other things

The Republican caucus appointed Eric Kidwell to replace Jeff DeYoung on the County Council. Last week's Rensselaer Republican paper had details, but I do not see it on their website.


Embers was featured in a podcast from done by a group called Tasty 219. Listen here.


Appleseed had a news release recently about a commitment to fund early childhood education. "Jasper Newton Foundation (JNF) is partnering with Fair Oaks Farms, LLC and Lake States Dairy Center, Inc. to bring $150,000 in funding to increase the access and availability of high-quality early childhood education classroom opportunities in Jasper and Newton Counties."


Below are pictures of some of the trees on the Christmas Tree Walk at Potawotomie Park.

Franciscan Health Rensselaer, with the tree of Lori Smith behind. I do not know who sponsored the white tree.

Chief Industries.

Here are a few more pictures of the decorated windows in downtown Rensselaer.

The paintings are sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, Mainstreet Rensselaer, and the City of Rensselaer. The main artist was Denise Espino who teaches the painting sessions at Frida's.

Airport Authority Board meeting

The Airport Authority Board meeting started a bit late because they had to find a quorum. The website problems that they discussed at an earlier meeting were mostly fixed. There was a long discussion about a drainage problem. The person who farms their land feels he has suffered a loss from a drainage issue caused by an adjoining land owner and wants to deduct that loss from the rent he pays the airport. Eventually the Board decided to send him a letter telling him what they expect from him.

The Board set the meeting times for 2023 as the second Tuesday of the month at 6:00 pm. They had a discussion about improving security and set pricing and rules for using the flight simulators that the Airport will receive this month. There was mention of an study of the economic impact of Indiana airports that can be found here. (Jasper County Airport is on page 4.) The meeting ended after a discussion of how to get a higher return for the cash the Airport has in bank accounts. The answer was T-bills but the Board of Finance must act on that before it can happen.

Christmas decorations

Christmas parade and decorations

On Saturday evening Rensselaer had its Christmas parade. Near the front were the fire trucks and snow plows.

The County Highway Department had this snowman.

After the trucks there was a long gap. I do not know what happened, but eMbers Venue was hosting a wedding reception so I watched the happy couple pose for pictures. As the parade resumed, my camera battery ran out. (It is an old phone and the battery indicator jumps from 70% to 1%.) Fortunately I had gotten to the parade early to take pictures of the entrants lining up while there was still daylight. I think this one was for Cub Scouts.

The adults on the float had better seats.

The high school had its marching band. There was also another band that was much smaller and I do not know what group it represented.

The City Electric Utility had a truck with lots of lights.

At the end of the parade was Santa.

When the parade was over people were encouraged to go to Potawatomie Park for Frosty Fest. I went but did not stay long. It was dark so I could not really see what was happening. The Christmas trees looked lovely with their lights.

Below are more pictures of decorated windows downtown. Some of them are quite funny.

On the door of Gutwein Risner Insurance is a note that they have moved the office to what was the Dumas Law office next to Halleck Park.

Below are two lawn decorations that I thought were quite funny.

Commissioners meeting

The December Commissioners meeting had a different look. Jeff DeYoung replaced Kendell Culp who had been a commissioner for 18 years. There will be another change in January when Richard Maxwell, who has served longer than any other Jasper County commissioner, will retire and be replaced by Rein Bontreger. However, Mr Culp was at the meeting and presided over it though he had no vote.

There were three buried cable requests and all were approved. Bids were opened for a new ambulance building and there was only one bid, from Titan. It bid $1,440,530 for the 3-bay configuration and $1,364,210 for the two bay configuration. The bid was taken under advisement and will be awarded at the year-end December 27th meeting. 

The three employees of the Extension Office have part of their salaries paid by Purdue and part by the County. Each year the Commissioners must approve the contract, and they did so at this meeting. The Surveyor's Office and Purdue Extension submitted estimates for cleaning and painting and they were approved. The Commissioners heard options for making the doors of the Prosecutor's Office ADA compliant and approved one of them. The agenda listed a bid opening for cash rent of County farmland but that opening was canceled because there was additional land that the Airport had purchased that was not included.

There were two items on the agenda about a drainage issue with Brightstone, a proposed development for vacation rentals. The person with the complaint removed himself from the agenda. The Commissioners approved the Sheriff's hiring of a third SRO officer for the Kankakee Valley Schools. They also approved replacing three employees: a dispatcher who has completed her nursing degree and will be working as a nurse and two jailers. One is going to the highway department and the other was a new employee who decided that the job was not for him. 

There was a brief update from EMS. It seems that the State will issue temporary license plates for the vehicles, so they can start being used. Things are ready to go pending certification. Bureaucracy is the hold up.

The most interesting and unexpected part of the meeting began. British Petroleum wants to sequester carbon dioxide and thinks that Jasper County may have the ideal geology for that. 4000 feet below us is a rock formation of Mt Simon sandstone that is porous and will hold liquid. On top of that is a layer of Eau Claire shale that caps the sandstone. The shale is impermeable so whatever is put into the sandstone should stay there unless the shale is broken and shattered. What BP wanted permission to do was to image the rocks underground acoustically. They would use trucks that in some way vibrate to send sound ways downward and then capture the echo with sensors. Their plan is to go over 103 miles of roads, 90 of which are County roads. They can do about four miles each day. All of this is prompted by fears of global warming caused by increased CO2 levels which models, that have not predicted well, say will lead to climate warming. The testing would be a preliminary step and it would take years to fully analyze the results.

The Commissioners were dubious. They wanted to know what the County would get from this project if it were completed. The response was that landowners would be paid. I believe Commissioners do not like the idea that Jasper County should serve as a dumping ground for activity in other parts of the state. The Commissioners declined to act, saying that they needed more information, and told BP to work with Jasper County Economic Development.

There was an update on the sick bank for County employees, a program I do not understand. A bid for snow removal in nine subdivisions was approved again. (It had been approved at the joint Commissioner/Council meeting.) The reason for outsourcing this is that the Highway Department is short manpower (CDL drivers). Animal Control was given approval to replace a part-time employee. The sale of the annex (former REMC building) closed on Friday and the County must remove all of its property by Wednesday. Commissioner Maxwell wanted all County vehicles except some Sheriff vehicles to have a County Emblem. This was passed. March 25 was suggested as a date for a County auction of surplus equipment.

After the meeting I asked who was in the running to fill the Council slot that Jeff DeYoung had held. I was told that ten people had entered their names. I also heard how the balloting went to replace Kendell Culp. There were five candidates. After the first ballot, the bottom two were dropped. For the second ballot, each of the remaining three received 8 votes. On the third ballot the tie was broken and the bottom vote getter was dropped. The fourth ballot resulted in another tie, with each getting 12 votes. On the fifth ballot someone switched, and Jeff DeYoung emerged the winner.

During the meeting I watched through a window workers start building a garage/storage building for the Health Department. At the beginning of the meeting they were digging holes for support beams, then they inserted the beams, and by the meeting's end they were tying the beams together. Below is a picture of the progress they made by the end of the Drainage Board meeting.

Drainage board

When I arrived at the Drainage Board meeting, bids were being opened for some project. The lower bid was accepted. The next four items on the agenda were for bores under County drainage ditches or tiles and all were quickly approved. Most of the meeting was taken up with a discussion of the Dunns Bridge solar park and there was background information that I did not have so I found the discussion confusing and hard to follow. The main issue was how much of various costs NextEra will pay. There were some verbal agreements but they were not put into writing. So what NextEra thought they were agreeing to pay and what the County thought NextEra was agreeing to pay seem not to be the same thing. The Board approved having its lawyer prepare a memorandum of understanding, submit it to the Board, and if approved by them, send it to NextEra's lawyer.

Winter

Meterological winter starts December 1 and lasts through February. Astronomical winter does not start until December 21, the winter solstice. I prefer to start winter now because then spring starts earlier.

I hate the short days of winter. On December 3 the day will be 9 hours, 27 minutes and 53 seconds long. (That number is from https://sunrise-sunset.org/us/rensselaer-in). The shortest day will be December 21, with 9 hours and 17 minutes. It could be worse. I have a niece in Winnipeg Canada and on December 3 her day will be 8 hours, 25 minutes, and 16 seconds long.

 Odds and ends

The Rensselaer Library celebrated 30 years in its current building on November 30. Visitors on that day could enjoy cake and cookies. 

As part of the celebration, the Library had invited patrons to submit artwork inspired by adventures that the library had inspired them to take.

In the former Library building the Prairie Arts Council now has its Celebrating Photography exhibit. It will run until January 5. The PAC has announced their 2023 schedule. The first four exhibits that last until mid April are the regional school shows. The Annual PAC Member Show fills May. June and part of July will feature local artist Abbie Parmele and August and September will feature Lilian Fendig. In October there will be a Jasper County Art League member show with the theme of "Fendig Inspired." And finally in December the Fendig Gallery will host the annual Celebrating Photography exhibit.

On Facebook Pottsy's announced he had paid off the bowling alley. In the comments, someone asked about reopening and he replied, " I’d love to give you a date but my installer sawed his finger off. Literally. He is one of the few in the country. He only has 2 weeks left to finish. But when will he get back."

Christmas decorations have been painted on some of the windows downtown.

Sage Bridal is no longer in this building but S-blended Nutrition has not finished moving in. The opening at the new location will be Saturday.

More windows were being painted on Friday.

I missed the ribbon cutting at the high school pool last week, but I expected that the Republican would give it excellent coverage. I was not disappointed. See here or on the front page of this week's edition.

The Republican has begun to cover Commissioner and County Council meetings. The reporter is Cheri Shelhart, who does an excellent job—I used to check her stories to see if I had made mistakes in what I posted. She writes for the Kankakee Valley Posts News, Demotte's paper.

There will be several businesses moving and one closing in the next few weeks. Steffens Jewelry will close before Christmas. The optometrist next to Aydas is moving soon to what was Jordans Floral and their current office building is for sale.

Work has begun on a storage building/garage for the Health Department, though it is only site preparation for a concrete slab. The location is to the west of the parking lot at what I call the Sparling Annex.

City Council meeting

The City Council met on Monday evening (November 28) and had four items on the agenda for utility rate changes: for water, sewage, electricity, and gas. A person from Baker Tilly, a consultant firm that prepared the rate-change recommendations, gave a long explanation of the state of the utilities, their debt, new and construction underway, changes in federal and state rules, and anything else that might affect the rates that they should be charging. He said that the recommended changes should cause about a 2% rise in the average utility bill. To pass these changes, a public hearing is required and that must be advertised. I see that a special Council meeting is scheduled for December 19 and I suspect that is when they will be approved. The vote at the meeting was to move forward with the process.

Twice a year the City must file a financial report with the USDA Rural Development department (which has given the City grant money) and the Council approved filing the report. The Council approved the three supply bids that it received at the last meeting (for gasoline, diesel, and tire services). The Council approved $2000 for an employee Christmas party/lunch. Next week the purchaser of the Wärtsilä generator will begin removing some of the components of the system.

Tourism Commission meeting

The Tourism Commission meeting scheduled for Friday morning did not have a quorum so no business could be done. The few attending discussed changing the meeting time. Friday was seen as undesirable and I think they eventually settled on the second Tuesday of the month. That would make January 10th the next meeting. They very briefly discussed the new tourism logo, which you can find on the Discover Jasper County Facebook page. There will be carriage rides in Rensselaer on December 10 and 17 from 5:00 until 8:00. More here. Someone mentioned that a Dunkin Donuts has opened at the DeMotte on SR 10 West of I-65. 

Snow and ice

We got a taste of real winter during the past few days. We got a bit of snow that did not melt immediately. 

The temperatures got low enough for ice to form on the river.

Hopefully it will all melt with the warmer temperatures this week.

Special County Council meeting

On Monday evening the County Council met for a short meeting to approve the sale of the former prosecutor/Health Department Annex, otherwise known as the former REMC building. (The Sale had been approved by the Commissioners at their November meeting.)  Two offers have been made for the building and the Commissioners have accepted the higher bid of $125,000. That is considerably less than the original asking price, but a reason that the County decided to move offices from the building was that the heating/cooling system needed to be replaced and the estimated replacement cost was very high. The potential buyer was not known by the Council, which approved the sale.

After the vote, the Council spent another ten minutes discussing whether construction bids could be limited to local contractors and the need for shopping for options for employee health insurance.

Missing from the meeting was Jeff DeYoung, who resigned from the Council after he was appointed by the Republican precinct  committee men and women to replace Kendell Culp as a commissioner. WLQI reported that five ballots were needed for DeYoung to get a a majority of the 24 members present. DeYoung was an at-large representative on the County Council and his replacement will be named by the same Republican committeemen at a meeting on December 8. 

County Plan Commission

The County Plan Commission also met on Monday evening, though later and at a different location. It had four items on its agenda. The first took by far the longest. It was for a rezone from A1 to A2 of a 15 acre parcel in Jordan Township so that a residence could be built on a four-acre section. The other 11 acres are in the floodplain of Carpenter Creek. If the rezone was granted, the only way according to the County Code to split off the four acres would be to create a two lot subdivision, but the Commission did not want to do this because one of the lots would look like it was buildable but it is not. After a lot of discussion, they approved the rezone (which is only advisory; the Commissioners have the final say) with the condition that the 15 acre lot be combined with the 26 acre lot owned by the same person, and then the four acres split off. Apparently if the acreage is large enough, a small lot for a residence can be split off without having it declared a subdivision. 

Two items were for a two-lot subdivision, one splitting 20 acres in Keener Township and the other splitting 25 acres in Walker Township. Both were approved. The final agenda item was for a rezone from A1 to GC (General Commerce?) in Keener Township. Bos Farms is currently using a building on the site as an office and wants to build a new office building, so wants to get the zoning right. It was approved. 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Winter arrives

Winter hit suddenly again this year. Last week we had very mild temperatures until Thursday, then a transition day on Friday with a cold north wind, and Saturday had highs in the 30s.

Almost all the leaves are off the trees, but there are still a few trees that are a bit late in losing their leaves. Below is a picture of a tree in Hal Gray Park taken over the weekend.

Board of Public Works meeting.

Monday's BPW meeting approved invoices and spending that totaled well over $1 million. The big one was pay request #6 for Theineman Construction for work on the lift station and extending sewer lines. It was for $944,720.52. Work on sewer lines along Clark Street is mostly done. On Tuesday a crane was at the lift station construction site putting in huge concrete manholes.

Here is what the crane was installing.

The Board also approved a change order that added $125,711.58 to the cost of the project and extended it by 16 days, with the finish date now of May 10. A manhole along the River was in much worse shape than anticipated so the decision was made to replace it. Also, the test soil bores did not detect some limestone that was near the surface and the construction company had to remove 378 cubic yards of it. (You may have heard the jackhammering for a couple of weeks.)

The Board approved a Commonwealth invoice of $29,711.12 for work on the lift station project and $19,318.70 for design and permitting on the elevated water storage project. The City has reached an agreement to purchase a lot of .91 acres plus access rights and the Board approved having the Mayor sign the purchase agreement when it is completed.

City Council meeting

The first part of the City Council meeting on Monday evening was devoted to several fire department items. Dain Hayworth, Marion County trustee, had praise for the local firefighters. He had been on some recent fire runs and observed them. The first item on the agenda was a pay increase for the three fire department drone operators. The position requires FAA certification. It passed. A discussion of something called fire territories followed. A fire territory would give the Fire Department a status similar to the Air Port Authority, with its own budget and ability to collect some taxes. Mr. Cover thought that there should be a special meeting to discuss this idea and the Mayor asked Mr. Hayworth to find a time that would work for everyone.

The Council repealed the salary ordinance passed at the last meeting because some of the salaries had changed. They did not seem to pass a new ordinance and I do not understand why they did not. The gas tracker for November will reflect a 30.5¢ decrease per hundred cubic feet. The Council approved $35,000 for the RenArtWlk project for 2023. The funds will be administered by the Jasper Newton Foundation.

City supply bids for gas, diesel, and tire services were opened. There was a single bidder on each item and a committee was formed to examine them and make a recommendation at the next meeting. The Council approved a request for public relations funds to purchase an item for a silent auction at the December Chamber of Commerce meeting.

The Council changed the date of its second December meeting from the 26th to the 27th. (The 26th is a City holiday.) SJC has approached the City asking to be annexed. The advantage for SJC would be lower utility bills. It gets electric, gas, water, and sewage from the City and has to pay a higher non-resident rate. The Council approved a motion to proceed exploring the matter.  The City has a potential buyer for the Wärtsilä electric generator. It was the newest of the engines and the main generator at the power plant before the power plant was shut down. It is huge and would have to leave town by rail. 

(Below is what the demolition in the power plant looked like about a week ago. The Wärtsilä  engine has the yellow ladder and rails. 

The remnants of the Fairbanks Morse engine have finally been removed.

Rensselaer BZA

The Rensselaer Board of Zoning Appeals met on November 10th to consider a variance of use for a property located at 202 N McKinley Avenue. The lot is zoned R-2 and the owners would like to use the building for a business. That business is Sage Bridal Studio, presently located on Washington Street across from the Courthouse. The building was built in about 1895 and Jackson Funeral Home purchased it years ago with the intention of eventually using the lot for parking. The BZA approved the variance, but limited it to Sage Bridal Studio, which does business by appointment.

Joint Commissioners/Council meeting

The County Commissioners and County Council held a joint meeting on Tuesday evening before the regular County Council meeting. A number of items from the previous Commissioners meeting were discussed. There was new information about EMS. The County EMS is being held up by red tape. The service changed its name twice and with those changes it needed new EIN numbers. Attempts to reach IRS in Salt Lake City have been frustrating, with frequent messages to call back another day because the lines are too busy and occasionally hour and a half waits with nothing accomplished. Without the EIN number the State will not issue the certificates needed to operate. 

The Coroner repeated his case for a full-time deputy. It is likely that a committee will be formed in early 2023 to investigate the case for and against.

The remaining two commissioners approved a trial by the Highway Department to contract with a private company for snow plowing in two subdivisions. (The Highway Department is short of manpower and has had difficulty in hiring people with CDLs.)

(The Republican committee that will select Mr Culp's replacement will meet on Thursday and the results should be public by Friday morning.)

County Council meeting

The Council approved a bunch of additional appropriations and transfers. One large one for consultants was needed because the County pays the engineering firm BF&S to monitor work on the Dunns Bridge solar farm, and then waits for reimbursement from NextEra. Sometimes it takes a while before the reimbursement is received.

The Council held a public hearing and then approved the designation of Carpenter Township as an Economic Revitalization Area. Mr. Bontreger read the entire document and it took about ten minutes. This will allow tax abatements to be given to the proposed wind farm.

The Surveyor's Office on behalf of the Drainage Board requested permission to seek a $1.5 million loan to begin work on the Davis Ditch System reconstruction project. (This is in Kankakee Township.) The solar farm people have agreed to help fund this but so far there is nothing in writing. The Council approved going forward but will want to approve a final bank agreement.

The Sheriff and the Superintendent of the Kankakee Valley School Corporation made a case for adding a third SRO to the KV school system. The system has 3300 students and operates five schools: the high school, a middle school, an intermediate school (grades 4 & 5) and elementary schools in Wheatfield and DeMotte. The School Corporation would pay 75% of the expenses and the Sheriff 25% and when school is not in session the officer would serve as a normal sheriff deputy. The Council approved funding for the position if the Commissioners approve the position.

The Sheriff requested an additional appropriation of $10,000 for overtime pay that may or may not be needed but because it had not been advertised, the Council could not act on the request. The Council did approve his spending of $3000 for a grant that would allow the County to hire one or two additional officers, with the federal government picking up 75% of the salary for several years.

The County Health Department wanted to have employees receive Covid compensation for their work during the pandemic. However, they had received hazard pay, so the Council wanted more information before they approved anything. The Council needs to make an additional appropriation for the outbuilding that the Health Department is building but it had not been advertised so no action was taken.

Stephen Eastridge had two projects that he presented to the Council and requested that they pass preliminary resolutions establishing economic revitalization zones, a first step in granting tax abatements. Both were approved. The first project was for a 16,000 foot warehouse on SR 10 that is related to Belstra Milling. It is expected to add ten jobs. The second was an expansion of FBI Builders in Remington for manufacturing trusses. It will cost $3 million and add 17 jobs. Both are the result of companies trying to integrate vertically to shorten supply chains. There is also some federal tax break for investment that will expire at the end of next year so businesses nationwide are pushing up projects.

Some more pictures

There was a Veterans Day program on Nov 11 at 11:00 in Weston Cemetery. There was a cold north wind that probably discouraged some people from attending. The ceremony started with some songs from the sixth grade choir.

On Tuesday the City was installing Christmas decorations downtown.

Over the weekend the Prairie Arts Council had its annual Holiday Art Show and Sale.

Other recent events include the St Augustine Bazaar, which had Party Time's new arcade trailer, Mistletoe Magic at the Fairgrounds, and the downtown merchants' Shop and Stroll.

I noticed that the remodeling for the Appletree child care building has added outside doors to each of the classrooms.

I noticed a new little library, this one in Foundation Park.

There is also one on Cullen that is fairly recent.

Others are in the College Mall by the fitness center, and on the corners of Washington and Front and Washington and Van Rensselaer.

 

One final picture, the state of the lift station over the weekend.