Holy Week

Continuing with Power Plant pictures.

On Wednesday last week the truck with the first of the Fairbanks Morse motors had left. A truck with the generator shaft from the big generator was loaded with other bits of equipment and it left shortly after.

Several smaller loads of stuff also left, such as this trailer pulled by a big pick-up truck.

Below is the view inside the power plant showing the three empty spaces previously occupied by engines.

A look to the north showed two of the engines left, including a newer Fairbanks Morse engine.

On Thursday the enormously-long truck left. I did not see it leave but many people did. They said it had two escort vehicles plus two or three police cars also traveling with it. It had some trouble making a curve (I think from Van Rensselaer to Washington) and then traveled south on US 231.

There was little or no activity at the plant over the weekend. On Monday a semi with a flatbed trailer arrived and I think it will transport the second Morse engine. On Tuesday the crane was busy behind the power plant taking down the exhaust chimneys that the motors used. I was lucky enough to catch the crane lifting the top of one of the chimneys.

A bit later it was lifting a section of pipe that has some role in making the engine work.

I wonder how much the cost of  dismantling and transporting this equipment will be. It must be many tens of thousands of dollars and perhaps much more than $100K.

Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission

On Thursday the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission met at City Hall. The big item on their agenda involved a grant to the Economic Development Agency (EDA) that has has an excellent chance of being approved. The grant, if it is approved, will be used for downtown revitalization, specifically to redo the two brick streets next to the Courthouse square. The project has an estimated cost of $2,651,000 and the EDA is considering funding up to $1,855,700 of that amount. The EDA wants some additional information. One thing it wants is information on any TIF funds that might be used for the project, and that was the reason for this meeting. $530,000 of the almost $800,000 needed will be taken from ARP (American Rescue Plan) funding. The Commission was asked to approve the remainder of what will be needed. Two years ago the City submitted a similar grant application that was not funded and the Commission agreed to match $530,000. The Commission voted 3 for with 2 absent to pay up to $530,000 again, some of which may be needed for design work.

The Commission also considered the annual Redevelopment Commission Report prepared by the City Clerk Treasurer. The Drexel Park TIF (which actually extends through the downtown and then out to the Interstate along SR114) collects much more revenue than the Lintner TIF area and has over ten times as much money in its account.

BPW and City Council meetings

In its monthly meeting on Monday, the Board of Public Works approved paying a long list of invoices. The reason for the many invoices is that the bonds for the sewer project had closed and that many were in some way related to that. The City has FFA approval for the site it has proposed for the water tower by the Interstate.

In the City Council meeting that followed, a citizen said he would like to have EV charging stations in town and said there were grants available to help provide them. The City is looking into the matter.

The first item on the agenda is a ordinance to the salary ordinance. At the last meeting the Council had approved raising the wage for part-time seasonal workers to $13 and the ordinance was designed to incorporate the change. However, at this meeting there was support to include park and cemetery workers in the change, though the higher wages may cause them budgetary problems. The ordinance was tabled to the next meeting to make the adjustments. 

The gas tracker for April will be an increase of 2.84 cents per hundred cubic feet of usage. The Council approved a motion about the funds it gets from ARPA. Because the amount the City receives is only about $1.3 million, it can declare the funds will be used as revenue replacement and that declaration will allow it to avoid a bunch of paperwork.

The Council approved spending $37,070 for a forklift for the Electric Department. On electronics recycling day the City collected 3.77 tons of electronic items. By the way, it you have electronics you want to recycle, you can take them to the recycling center any day of the week. You not not need to wait for a special electronics recycling day.

The Gas Department will host an open house on April 29 from 11:00 - !:00. The first tournament for the Blacker fields is schedule for the weekend of April 23.

Odds and Ends

Brown's Garden Shop has new owners as the Browns are retiring.

Brookside Park has had another incident of vandalism. 

Work has begun on the sewer project.

The exterior of Walgreens seems to be mostly finished and work has begun on the curbs for the drive-through.

Water in the quarry continues rising and is now above the rails of the platform that once held the pump that kept the water from rising.

RBI has about $2000 left to raise to get a matching Patronicity grant.

The first Walk-with-a-Doc event took place on Tuesday.