A long evening of meetings

Jasper County BZA and Plan Commission meetings 

The developers of the Brightstone Lake project were on the agenda for both the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Plan Commission meetings on Monday evening. The request to the BZA was for a variance to allow RVs in Brightstone Lake. At present there are no hook-ups for RVs but there are also no cabins built. The developers would like to be able to offer the site to RV owners who do not need hook-ups. As the project is developed, hookups will be provided. The request for the Plan Commission was to establish a three-lot subdivision for three lots south of the vacation rentals. Both requests were approved.

The Plan Commission then voted to recommend an update to the County's Comprehensive Plan to the Commissioners. It was last updated in 2009 and the process of updating it has been going on for over a year. 

Both groups would like to use the Commissioners Room in the Court House for future meetings but that decision probably needs to be made by the Commissioners.

Joint Commissioners/Council meeting

On Tuesday evening there was a joint Commissioners/Council meeting that lasted more than two hours. The first item discussed was the County Health insurance for employees. The question the group had was whether there were ways to cut insurance costs and improve services. I did not know enough about the current insurance plans to follow some of the discussion. It did not seem that the 45 minutes of discussion discovered any things to change other than to give employees better information about their options.

The next 30 minutes were devoted to a discussion of how to compensate for experience and years of experience for County employees. Again, I do not know enough about current policy to understand parts of the discussion. There were a number of questions and suggestions from County employees attending.

The remainder of the meeting was devoted to EMS. There is a shortage of qualified personnel, not just locally but nationally. The Southern ambulance service from Carpenter Township is all volunteer and is barely functioning. As a result, Phoenix from Rensselaer sometimes has to help out, and then Rensselaer has no ambulance. If one is needed, it must come from the north. The committee trying to get a township EMS service up and running for Marion Township has interviewed candidates for an EMS director and an offer will be made very soon. The first priority of the new person will be to get the Southern service running effectively. There is hope that the Marion service can be running by August 1. 

Staffing is a huge issue. Keener and Wheatfield argue they need more County help. Their calls are increasing as the population of the northern part of the County increases and also new residents seem to call for the ambulance for more minor issues than longtime residents. The County goal is to eventually have a county-wide service. That will take a while and has serious hurdles, such as the existing services use three different hospitals.

Jasper County Council meeting

The County Council meeting that followed started about twenty minutes late. It approved a request from animal control to use $5000 from its donation fund for concrete work associated with a donated catio and the purchase of a metal storage container to keep mice from animal food. It also approved funds for the probation department for radios for employees doing home visits. It then approved a series of additional appropriations. One for the Fairboard had an interesting note. The Board had gotten approval from the Commissioners to purchase floor boards for its bleachers and the Board had a source. However, that source decided to raise the price because the value of scrap aluminum had gone up. So the Fairboard is not sure where it will get the floorboards but it will have funds ready when another source is found. The Council approved enough money to pay the County EMS director when that person is hired. 

In public comments a citizen was interested in getting some public records. Something that particularly interested him was a check from 2013 that was mentioned in the Commissioners meeting of September of that year. Mr Culp questioned it, but he must have been satisfied with the answer given because the claim was approved. (It was noted that the issue with claims was not something to bring to the Council. It belongs in the bailiwick of the Commissioners. )

The Sherif was the last to speak and he gave an update on his quest to get license-plate cameras for the County. He thinks he has found funding for eight and asked the Council to fund three more. The Council was agreeable but formal approval must wait until the next meeting. He also said that there is a Department of Justice grant he would like to pursue that would pay 75% of the salary of new officers for three years. The officers must be additional hires and cannot replace officers who are leaving.

Odds and ends

The State recently announced that Jasper County was awarded $1 million for Community Crossings. The funds are used to improve roads. 

Rensselaer has a new street, Schuster Road or Schuster Drive. At the beginning of the year the City accepted a donation of land from NITCO near the water tower south of town and I noticed on Friday that the road has been constructed. It was not there a couple of weeks ago when I went by.

Walgreens has a sign that says they will be moving on May 25.

RBI raised enough to qualify for the matching part of the Patronicity grant. The money will be used to upgrade the restrooms near Staddon Field.

More equipment was trucked from the power plant this week and there cannot be a whole lot left. I did not stop by on Tuesday but on Wednesday some of the chimneys that had been taken down last week were being loaded on a truck. In addition to the chimneys, the truck was full of wooden beams that were used in moving the big engines from the power plant.

On Thursday more of the chimneys were being loaded, this time with the big crane. All the chimneys were gone on Friday morning.

A smaller truck had some equipment that was part of the cooling system. It left Friday morning.

The street was open on Friday afternoon but there were still workers moving things inside the building.

PAC Member Show

The current exhibit at the Fendig Gallery is the fifth annual PAC (Prairie Arts Council) member show. It runs until May 31 and the gallery is open for viewing on Tuesdays noon to 4:00 and Thursdays 2:00 to 6:00.

The show seemed smaller this year than in the past. I do not know if there were fewer pictures or if it was because this year there were many small works and no really big ones.

It is beginning to look like spring. I wish it would warm up enough so I can put away my winter coat.