In my last post I made a mistake reporting the new hours for the Fendig Gallery. They are 3:00 to 4:00 on Tuesdays and 2:00 to 6:00 on Thursdays. The later closing on Thursdays will allow people to come after work.
On Monday evening the Rensselaer Board of Public Works met and the two new hires for the Police Department were introduced. They will be attending the Police Academy in late summer of early fall, the earliest that there are openings for that training. The Board passed Standard Operating Procedures for use of drones by the Police Department. The document was based on what other police departments have in the SOPs and the Board needed to pass it for the Department to begin using drones. The drone they use is shared with the Fire Department. The Police Department has one officer currently certified and the Fire Department has two members certified. Currently there are no Sheriffs Deputies certified so the Sheriff uses the Fire Department people if he has a need for a drone.
The Board approved two invoices for Commonwealth Engineering, one for water main replacement and elevated storage tower and the other for main lift station and unsewered areas. The second of those has been bid but the City is still waiting to see what part of USDA Rural Development funding will be in the form of a grant and what part will be debt.
The City Council met after the BPW meeting and began the year by continuing George Cover as President of the Council. The gas tracker for January will be a 13.5¢ increase per hundred cubic feet. The Council accepted the donation from NITCO of a right-of-way and easements for Shuster Drive, a platted but undeveloped road that leads from Drexel Drive to the water tower area. The property is 785 feet by 90 feet and the City will begin developing the road with a gravel base. Background work (getting easements and surveying) on this project has been underway for about a year.
The Mayor made appointments to a variety of boards and commissions. In the Superintendents' Reports Heather Smart reported on the activities of the Urban Forestry Council. Since it began, the Council has planted 837 trees but during that time the City lost 973 trees, most due to the emerald ash borer. A goal of the Council is to diversify the trees in the City so a single disease or pest will not have the same impact as the ash borer has had. The Council has received $61,000 in grants.
The Building Commissioner received permission to look for a replacement for his truck, which recently had a wheel fall off. The Fire Chief reported that the department had responded to 264 calls in 2021 and the average time on scene was 3.2 hours. The City is hoping to get water well #6 back online; it has been shut down for cleaning for several months. The new trash cans may be arriving in Rensselaer on the 14th. A heater in a backroom of the gas utility needs to be replaced.
I recently was looking at old microfilm at the Library and stumbled on what was happening at the City Council a century ago, in 1922. Rensselaer had just elected a new mayor, Jay Stockton, a grandson of John Makeever. As the article below reports, he did not like the City Attorney, Moses Leopold. Moses became the Circuit Court Judge in 1932 and served until 1969. (He was one of the people featured in the 2021 Cemetery Walk). I do not think any descendants of the Leopolds are still in Rensselaer, but I am pretty sure there are still descendants of Stockton. The article below is from the January 6, 1922 issue of The Rensselaer Republican.
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