Regional High School Art Show and other tidbits to end February.

The 29th Regional High School Art Show is on display at the Fendig Gallery.

The Gallery is open Tuesdays from noon until 4, Thursdays 2:00 until 6:00, and Saturdays noon until 2:00.

March 12 will be the last day of the exhibit.

Snow has given people ways to display their artistic creativity. I found these snow creatures the other day. They had started to melt and were past their prime but I took a picture because I really like the little dog.

I have a mouse or mice in my yard that have been busy tunneling under the snow. When the snow melts, their tunneling is revealed.  I am surprised that one of our neighborhood cats has not killed them.

The water in the quarry has reached the floor of the platform that once held a pump that kept the water from rising.

There are hundreds of geese that hang out in the quarry. I wonder where they go to eat when the snow covers the ground.

A sign that the Covid panic/pandemic is over:

If you get up early in the morning on a clear day, you will see Venus in the morning sky. It is very bright.

Rensselaer Baseball Inc (RBI) has obtained a Patronicity Grant to make improvements to Staddon Field, including upgrading the restroom. They need to have people donate to match the grant. More details are here.

I posted in late January that United Way of White County was administering a grant that still had money available for Jasper County. In its February meeting the review board approved grants that allocated all the remaining funds.

I have been trying to finish my taxes and I noticed that the county tax rate for Pulaski County is now lower than the county tax rate for Jasper County. Pulaski had the dubious distinction of having the highest rate in the State. Now they are third. Our tax rate for 2021 is 2.864% and Wabash County has a 2.9% rate. I counted 13 counties with rates 2.5% or more. When I first started attending County Council meetings, a couple of Council members pushed to get our rates lowered, but there was a tight limit on how much they could lower the rates every year. Then some changes in what the State allowed created a lot of uncertainty and that push evaporated. Sometime in the past the Council decided we should have high income taxes and low property taxes. I do wonder what prompted Pulaski County to lower their income tax rate.

My son in Kentucky reports that he has seen crocuses. Spring will get here.

Roller-coaster weather

 Have you been enjoying the roller-coaster weather of late winter?  Warm weather on Tuesday and Wednesday and rain Wednesday and early Thursday melted almost all the snow that we had received earlier in the month. The rain also caused rivers to rise, with the Iroquois cresting late Thursday just below flood stage. I took the picture below on Thursday morning. It shows Weston Pond (the field just to the east of Weston Cemetery). Note the lack of snow.

Later in the morning the rain started and as the temperatures dropped, the precipitation switched to snow. The snow and wind reduced visibility and pretty much shut down everything. Businesses closed early and accidents on the Interstate snarled traffic. The scheduled Improv at the Ritz had its last showing canceled; final score: weather 2, Improv 1. I took the picture below in the early afternoon on Thursday. It also shows Weston Pond.

Earlier this week the City was distributing the new garbage cans. Each has a number and that number is tied to a particular address. The cans remain the property of the City and if a person moves, the can should remain with the house.
 

The Carnegie Center is now showing the work of elementary-school students, those in grades 3 to 5. Saturday will be the last day for the public to view it. Hours are noon to 2:00.

The Jasper County Council met on Tuesday evening. The County Coroner reported that he had had 24 calls in January and two suicides in February and had already spent a quarter of his budget. He noted that mental health is a big issue statewide.
The Sheriff gave an update on his plan to lease several license-plate reading cameras. The cost would be between $2000 and $2500 each month. Councilmen asked what the benefit to the County would be. Judge Bailey was given an additional appropriation for the audio-visual upgrade to both courts that the Commissioners had approved at their meeting. The Council then approved a bunch of additional appropriations and budget reductions that cleaned up various problems in the budget. The Council appointed Paul Norwine as its representative for the Fair Board.

The Council then had a discussion of longevity, PERF and HSAs that I did not understand. Apparently the members of the Council did not understand the issues either because they decided that they needed a joint session with the Commissioners to figure it out. They thought April 19 would be a good date with the discussion beginning an hour and a half before their regular meeting.

Finally, a couple of notes from the distant past. Do you recognize the name Eleanor Stackhouse? This is from the Rensselaer Republican of September 11, 1890.

How about Earl Reynolds? This is from the Rensselaer Republican of October 18, 1890.

Eleanor married and became Eleanor Atkinson Stackhouse. She is buried in Weston Cemetery and was featured on last year's Memories Alive at Weston Cemtery. She wrote a number of books that are available on Amazon. Earle Reynolds was a skater and performer. He also is buried in Weston Cemetery and his second wife, Nellie Donegan, was featured in the 2020 Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery.

Update: Weston Pond taken Friday afternoon. It now has a layer of ice.

Interstate traffic was coming through Rensselaer for at least several hours on Friday.

Odds and ends post Valentines Day

The Carnegie Players performed the first of two showings of "Improv at the Ritz" on Thursday. They provided an enjoyable experience for the audience and they seemed to have a lot of fun doing it. The format was similar to that in the TV series Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

The final performance will this Thursday at 7:00 at the Ritz Theater.

Before attending the Improv show, I attended two meetings. The first was a meeting of Rensselaer Urban Forestry Council, which meets in the basement of the First Christian Church. They are preparing to plant trees this year on South McKinley and South Cullen. They have two people starting planning for this year's Arbor Day program and two other people will be writing articles about trees and the RUFC for the Rensselaer Republican. The Council has a Facebook page here. They had a discussion about the Amazon Smile program in which Amazon donates .5% of the value of purchases to organizations and I see that details are now on the RUFC Facebook page.

From that meeting I went to a meeting of the Rensselaer Advisory Planning Commission, which after a long discussion approved a declaratory resolution that is required to enlarge the Lintner Park TIF area. This was previously approved by the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission in January. Next it will go to the City Council.

(The Lintner Park TIF area is on the northeast corner of Rensselaer and includes businesses such as Chief, National Gypsum, and White Castle. The new addition includes all land within City limits to the east.)

We finally got some days with significant snow melt, including a day with quite a bit of rain. The result is a rise in the level of the Iroquois River. There is still ice on it, but some of it has been dislodged and has been carried downstream.

The Maxwell ditch was full of brown water on Friday.

Our forecast is for roller-coaster weather with significant precipitation. 

On Monday evening the Rensselaer Board of Public Works met and approved two invoices from Commonwealth Engineering. The City Council meeting later approved an ordinance returning outdated warrants. As I understand it, this voids out checks that are two years old and older and returns the amounts back on the books of the issuing fund. It then approved expanding the TIF area that was discussed above. On February 1 the Mayor polled the Council to reduce the quarantine to five days in accordance with guidelines from the CDC and the Jasper County Health Department. The Council ratified the poll. An employee in the metering department was honored for 20 years of employment. 

The gas tracker for February will be an 11¢ decrease per hundred cubic feet. The Gas Department had obtained three quotes for roof replacement. The building's roof has several leaks. The Council passed a motion to declare an emergency that waives the competitive bidding process and then approved the low bid of $158,080 for a rubber roof.

The City Attorney is preparing a "green" energy ordinance that seems to be something for companies that want to advertise that they use "green" energy. The City may be selling one of the engines from the power plant. The Mayor is waiting on the broker's report. The Council moved to instruct the City Attorney to prepare something to repeal the payments that employees get if they get COVID. The County recently made this change.

The new Walgreens building has four walls and after the picture below was taken, a roof was installed. This may be the last update picture for a while.

Do you know where this picture was taken?

Until a few weeks ago, there was a house there. It is in the lot just west of the REMC building on John Deere Road. REMC bought the property in November. In August the zoning for the property was changed from A2 to L1.

I never got a close look at the property, but the Jasper County Interim Report calls it the Monnett House. It was owned by Fletcher Monnett, brother of Cordelia Monnett who funded the Monnett School. (For some info on Fletcher, check out this blog post.)

First February meetings 2022

My weather-related picture for this post is a picture of icicles backlit by the sun. There is a lot of snow, but none of it seems interesting enough to photograph.

 The February meetings have started. The County Commissioners met Monday with more people attending via Zoom than in person. (Cold temperatures and bad roads encouraged that.) They reorganized the Board (which they apparently forgot to do in January), electing Kendell Culp as president and James Walstra as vice president. They finalized the holiday schedule for County employees, adding Juneteenth and for years in which there are County elections, the primary and final election days. In even years there will be 16 holidays and in odd years 14.

Judge Bailey requested $190,460 to upgrade both Courtrooms. The upgrade will be for recording and audio-visual equipment that will enhance the ability to have remote hearings. The request was approved with the decision of what fund will be used for payments to be decided later.

There was a public hearing on an issue raised by a citizen at the previous meeting concerning traffic on the County Road leaving Remington to the south. No citizens spoke and the Commissioners decided to lower the speed limit to 45 mph from CR 1800S to CR 1900S. 

The Sheriff had an officer resign but has a replacement ready, a County resident who is working as a police officer outside the County. The Commissioners approved the hire. The City of Rensselaer told the Sheriff that the Jail was using excessive water and an inspection found a valve that was stuck partially open that should have been closed. The problem will be fixed when the proper part arrives. The solar field generates a lot of electricity, more than can be used during the day and nothing at night. The excess during the day is sold to IMPA at 2¢ per kilowatt hour and during the night electricity is purchased at 14¢ per kilowatt hour. The Sheriff thought the response to the storm last week went well. The County Highway Department reported at least 65 stalled cars.

The County Coroner gave the Commissions the same report he gave the County Council in January. He wants a full-time deputy and needs a building next to the morgue to house things that he uses and to provide a place to disassemble crashed vehicles outside public view when bodies are trapped inside. He said his office handled 128 cases in 2021, up from 70 in 2020. 

The Commissioners opened bids to do paving for the Community Crossings grant. There were two bids and after consultants reviewed the bids, the Commissioners accepted the low bid of $459,89.40 from Town and Country Paving.

The Commissioners approved a buried cable permit, this one a 4500 foot natural gas pipe that will serve residents in the north part of the County. NITCO expressed interest in providing broadband service to more of the County and wanted to know if the fees would be waived for them as they were for REMC. They were told that the ordinance that waived fees applied to all providers. 

The Prosecutor provided quotes for upgrading security to his building. The Commissioners approved spending on four items: bollards, card access, video surveillance, and panic alarms on computers. The last item may not need funding because some computers already have it and the software license may allow other computers to be added.

The meeting finished with the usual minutia of conference requests, a board appointment, lawn-care quotes, etc. 

The Drainage Board met in the afternoon. It reorganized, appointing its attorney, secretary, and members to the various joint Drainage Boards the County has with surrounding counties. There was a long discussion with NextEra about its drainage plan for Phase II of the Dunns Bridge project. The Board wants a detailed plan of what work will be done and NextEra cannot provide that yet. The Board approved removing trees along ditches (which must be done before the end of March to avoid conflict with brown bat migrations) and preliminary planning for a detention pond. NextEra will be back for the March 7 meeting. 

Jeff DeYoung was concerned about new floodplain maps for the DeMotte area. It turns out there are two different maps, one from FEMA that is used for insurance and one from the Indiana DNR that is used for building permits. The DNR maps are more aggressive in deciding what is floodplain.

The Rensselaer Park Board met on Monday evening but did not have members for a quorum so no votes could be taken. One of the baseball tournaments for the Blacker Fields has been canceled because not enough teams signed up. It was scheduled for early April. So the schedule now has 7 baseball and 4 softball tournaments.

RBI, which uses the Staddon Field, received a grant from Jasper-Newton Foundation to make improvements to Staddon Field. RBI is pursuing a Patronicity grant that will have to be matched. If the grant is accepted, the bathrooms at the park will be upgraded. 

When weather improves, a concrete chess table and concrete corn-hole goals will be installed at Iroquois and Potawotomie Parks. 

The Tourism Commission had a brief meeting Friday. At the last meeting they heard from a representative of the Travel Indiana magazine about advertising in that magazine. At Friday's meeting they decided to seek other advertising options.

The Weston Cemetery Walk committee met Monday to begin planning for next September's Memories Alive Walk.

The Airport Authority Board met Tuesday evening.  The members approved advertising a request for proposals for a hay contract. It will be one year with possible extensions and will be for grasses along the runway. They also approved a draft of a report that will be submitted to the FAA. The manager reported that the only vacancies are in the old hangar. She has a person job shadowing her for the next six weeks. She wondered if the summer internship program, which has been filled with high school students, might be more useful for a college student. She will get a quote on seal coating areas of asphalt that need it.

The Carnegie Players canceled their February 3 performance of Improv at the Ritz because of weather and the condition of the County roads. There are performances scheduled for February 10 and 17.

The future Walgreens had three of the walls up when I stopped by last weekend.

I began working on my taxes last week and found this interesting pie chart on page 109 of the instruction booklet (which can be obtained at the Rensselaer Library). Would you have guessed that 48% federal spending was financed by debt in 2020?

Because I may not have another post before the 14th, I will end with this.

Snow day, February 2022

 Today, Wednesday, is a snow day. It will snow all day long. I expected more snow on the ground this morning, but the snow that fell was compacted and wet on the bottom, so there was more there than what a first glance suggested. It was a good day for those who plow snow.

The roads were being plowed, but freshly falling snow kept the roads at least partially white. The City streets were mostly completely white despite the plows.

The River looked strange.

There was little wind overnight so the snow stuck to branches creating the "winter-wonderland" look.

Everything will probably look very different tomorrow morning when the snow fall has finally stopped.

The Prairie Arts Council (PAC) relayed an interesting announcement on Facebook:

Markit Arts located at 108 W. Washington St. Rensselaer is hosting its first painting event on Valentines Day Monday February 14. Join us for a fun evening of pop art inspired painting. See flyer and painting example below. Register for the event at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/street-heart-tickets-249850378207

We are excited to be opening our doors for art experiences in downtown Rensselaer! 

Ryan and Lindsey Preston
Cameron and Crystal Moberg

108 W. Washington is the tiny building that used to be Clean as a Whistle. Cameron Moberg recently purchased it. 

A couple weeks ago I noticed a new building on the south side of East Walnut Street. Judging from the tracks in the snow, it is being used. It is owned by  Sycamore USA LLC. The lot at one time held oil storage tanks and was owned by the Mobil Oil Company. The tanks were removed in 2009 and here are two posts on that: here and here.

The Clinic of Family Medicine and its property changed ownership in December. The Doctors Service Corporation sold to Liberty Rentals LLC.

Frieda's Grill & Breakfast opened this week. It is located next to the Ritz Theater in the building that last housed Moonshiners. It is open Tuesday through Thursdays for breakfast and lunch. On Fridays and Saturdays it will be open later.

The main dining area will be in the building next to the alley. They would have opened a few months ago but had difficulty finding staff.

I keep waiting for the Iroquois River to completely freeze over. Where the current is slow, ice covers the River, but where there is current, the water still flows. For example, here was what the River looked like upstream of the Melville Street Bridge on Saturday, January 31:

The River looked completely different on the other side of the bridge:

There is no current in the SJC reflecting pond, so it froze last week.

There is no current in the Babcock Quarry, but its water is very deep and still has not frozen. Hundreds of Canadian geese hang out there.

On Monday the walls of the new Walgreens started rising.

A day later and they were more than half up. 

Workers were installing roof trusses that will support the walls. The panels are pre-assembled so this part of construction is going very quickly.

I did not check back later on Tuesday to see if they had completed the walls.

I stopped in Walgreens on Monday and asked if they would have a big moving sale. I was told that the merchandise would be trucked to other stores and that the moving date may be in May.

One last picture:

In early December Rensselaer had a storm that knocked over a number of trees, including a big one in Weston Cemetery. On Monday the trunk was trucked away.