More power plant pictures

More power plant pictures 

I expected the large engine that the crane lifted onto the truck on Wednesday would be gone on Thursday, but it was still there, on the trailer with the cab disconnected. While watching some of the action later in the day, a Rensselaer worker said that the company needed to get some permits before moving it.

On Thursday morning a large, round disk was being moved. I think it was a cap for the big generator, the one that a town in Kansas bought for half a million dollars, that they were getting ready to move.  (I was told after this post was published that it is a flywheel.)

A bit later huge blocks of wood were being taken inside the building. 

On Friday the core of the generator was lifted out of the building and onto the street. Not too long after this the casing for the generator was lifted out.

On Saturday the generator core, now on a metal frame, was lifted onto a truck trailer.

By the the afternoon both the generator core and its casing were on trucks that looked ready to leave.

On Saturday afternoon the large motor that drives the generator was being pulled out of the building. The workers had put down round iron pipes to use as rollers to help extract the big machine.

By Sunday the motor was wrapped in a tarp.

Tourism Commission meeting

The Jasper County Tourism Commission met Friday via Zoom. They considered three funding requests. The first was a request for $8000 from the DeMotte Chamber of Commerce for the Touch of Dutch Festival to be held on August 13. The festival was scaled back last year but will be fully back this year, but only for one day. The organizer asked what they Commission thought of continuing in the future with only one day, noting that volunteer burnout was a problem. The Commission thought the change was a good idea because almost all out-of-town visitors come on Saturday. The main draw this year will be comedian Ryan Niemiller who graduated from KV High School in 2000 and whose mother still lives in DeMotte. His fee will be considerably lower than his regular fee. There was a rather long discussion of what the best ways were to promote the festival. The Commission approved $5000 for the festival.

The second request was from MainStreet Rensselaer and was for $3000 to finish replacing Christmas lights. Over the past couple of years Main Street has spent about $35000 replacing old lights and the remainder of the old lights, which are wreaths with three candles) will be replaced this year. The request was approved.

The final request was from RBI (Rensselaer Baseball Incorporated), an organization that is about 25 years old and until last year has not had a home field. With the completion of the Blacker Fields, the Park Department allowed them to call Staddon Field home. Rensselaer RBI joined the Tippecanoe County League and will have six travel teams for the various age groups. They have received a Patronicity Grant of $37,500 that must be matched. They had about $9000 left to raise and requested $3500 from the Commission. The money will be used to improve the field and especially the restrooms. The goal is to make the field compatible with the Blacker Fields so that in the future it might be able to serve as an additional field for the tournaments.  The use of Staddon Field will allow  RBI to host games. The Commission approved the request.

In other tourism news, there is now a rough draft of a farm-trail map. There is planning with nature preserves for sponsoring hikes in those preserves. Planning for this year's Jasper Jaunt has begun.

Odds and ends

Another flower of early spring was blooming by the Rensselaer Library.

There is an excavator by the high rate treatment plant. Elza Street will get a short extension to the south to allow construction of a new lift station for the City sewer system.